
Book .. -C^ 

Copyright N°_ . 



CCBlRIGHT DSK)Sm 



Men Who Have Meant 
Much to Me 

ADDRESSES AND ESSAYS 



BY 

JOHN B. CALVERT 




New York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



0$> 



Copyright, 1918 

BY 

JOHN B. CALVERT 



DEC 31 1918 



©CI. A 5 08 8 1.0 



TO 



AUTHOE'S NOTE 

THE biographical sketches found in this 
volume were in several instances delivered 
as appreciative tributes and were printed 
at the time either in booklet form, in The Ex- 
aminer or in The Watchman-Examiner. Some of 
these tributes were written under the stress of 
sorrow, and can best be interpreted by reproduc- 
ing the setting that called them forth. Each is 
complete in itself. There is no attempt at 
sequence nor at relation of one to another. The 
only thread that binds them together is that of 
personal friendship, running through a long term 
of years with men in widely different positions, 
all of whom stood close to me in either a paternal 
or fraternal relationship. The collection is really 
just a " sheaf of tributes' y to some of the men who 
have meant much to me and who will ever be held 
in affectionate remembrance. In no sense is it 
to be inferred that this list includes all the friends 
with whom it was my privilege to be closely asso- 
ciated in fellowship and in service, who have now 
passed to their reward. Manifestly no mention 
is made of any one of the large circle of true and 
tried friends now living. These appreciations of 

5 



6 AUTHOR'S NOTE 

noble lives are now brought together in the com- 
pass of this volume with the hope that their in- 
fluence may be as ennobling and inspiring to 
others as they have been to myself. 

J. B. C. 

Irrington-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



CONTENTS 



I. Martin Brewer Anderson . . 9 

1. Dr. Anderson's Chapel Talks. ... 43 

2. Gleanings from Chapel Talks. ... 48 

II. Edward Bright 75 

Address at the Annual Meeting of the Baptist 
Missionary Convention, at Jamestown, N. Y.» 
October 25, 1916. 

III. George Howe Brigham .... 101 

Printed in The Examiner, October 27, 1910. 

IV. Daniel Clarke Eddy . . . . Ill 
V. William Alburtis Cauldwell . . 131 

Address at the Sunday School Memorial Service 
in the Calvary Chapel, March 19, 1893. 

VI. James Duane Squires .... 138 

Printed in Pamphlet, September, 1913. 

VII. Henry Whitmer Barnes . . . 156 

Address in the First Baptist Church, Bing- 
hamton, N. Y., October 1, 1914. Printed in The 
Watchman and Examiner, October 15, 1914. 

VIII. Charles Wesley Brooks . . . 168 

Address in the First Baptist Church, Watkins, 
N. Y., September 23, 1911. Printed in The 
Examiner, September 28, 1911. 

IX. Lemuel Moss 181 

Address to the Baptist Ministers' Conference, 
New York, September 19, 1904. 

X. Thomas Oakes Conant .... 192 

XI. Henry Lyman Morehouse . . . 200 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 

NO setting is needed to emphasize the gen- 
uine worth and the greatness of Dr. An- 
derson. No office, however exalted, no 
words of praise, however well chosen, could add 
to the nobility of his soul, to his rugged and forci- 
ble personality, or make him other than he was in 
the esteem of the great majority of his compeers 
— one of the foremost educators of his time. Un- 
like many men who borrow as much from their 
surroundings as they themselves possess, Dr. 
Anderson had all his greatness in himself, and 
gave honor to the office he filled, instead of receiv- 
ing honor from it. 

The farther the passing years may remove one 
from the days in which he sat in Dr. Anderson's 
classroom and was made familiar with his appear- 
ance in Anderson Hall, or about the college, the 
more he appreciates the nobility of his character, 
the greatness of his intellectuality, and the forcible 
influence of his dominating personality. We may 
forget his teaching and his words of counsel, but 



10 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

we cannot forget how great lie was, or get away 
from the inspiring, uplifting and transforming in- 
fluence that left an indelible impression on his 
students. 

Of all the forces in human life that go to the 
making of manhood, none is so potent as contact 
with masterful characters. The biographies of 
men who have done any real work in the world 
show that their lives were largely shaped and 
molded by some other life, or by what emanates 
from a strong personality. It may have been a 
preacher, like Knox or Wesley; a teacher, like 
Arnold of Eugby; a book, like Bunyan's Pil- 
grim's Progress; an oratorio, like ' * The Messiah" ; 
a long and fraternal friendship, like David and 
Jonathan's; a true yoke-fellow in service, as Paul 
to Silas ; or a quiet prayerful life like that of the 
mother of Augustine. In a subtile and sensitive 
way life reacts upon life. The Apostle enunciated 
the fundamental law of life when he said, "None 
of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to him- 
self." It is abundantly manifest that "no man 
is the whole of himself; his friends are the rest 
of him." The influence of those who have lived 
and gone abides and has a determining effect upon 
the destiny of the generations coming after them. 
Lord Byron has truly said: 

"The heart ran o'er 
With silent worship of the great of old ; 
The dead, but sceptered sovereigns, who still rule 
Our spirits from their urns." 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 11 

If one attempts to analyze his own life he will 
find that this principle has abundant exemplifica- 
tion in his own experience. In a very real sense 
he can say with Tennyson's Ulysses: "I am a 
part of all that I have met. ' ' Family, chnrch and 
social relationships, friends, school-life, teachers, 
books, travel, co-laborers in service, every one 
and every thing in fact with which he has come in 
contact ; some influences overmastering, others less 
strong, have all contributed, or are contributing 
to the unfolding and establishing of his character, 
the making of his life. 

Among the myriad influences that have sensibly 
or insensibly had to do with the shaping and de- 
termining of my own life, probably there is none 
more potent, certainly none in the notable circle 
of my instructors and teachers, and none that has 
made a more indelible impression, than that of 
Dr. Martin B. Anderson, for thirty-five years the 
honored and esteemed president of the University 
of Rochester, himself the embodiment of the noble 
manhood and lofty ideals he sought to awaken in 
others. 

The impression made by Dr. Anderson upon me 
the first time I saw him can never be effaced. He 
stands out as vividly to-day, after the lapse of two 
score years, as if it were only yesterday that I 
saw him for the first time at Commencement in 
June, 1872, when I went up to the university for 
my entrance examinations. His powerful frame, 
his leonine head, his deep-set eyes, his heavy, 



12 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

over-arching brow, his fine, aquiline nose, his 
flowing reddish-brown hair and bristling beard, 
suggested the great liberator, Garibaldi, for whom 
he was many times taken when he was in Europe. 
As Dr. Anderson marched in cap and gown with 
the trustees, alumni and seniors from the Second 
Baptist church to Old Corinthian Hall, and stood 
forth at the close of the orations to give his final 
word of counsel and appeal to the graduating 
class, my attention was closely riveted upon him, 
for it seemed to me I never had seen such a 
majestic and mighty man. As he gave vigor and 
emphasis to his words, his very soul kindling, and 
his voice vibrating with the unfolding of his 
theme, he awakened a feeling of awe and admira- 
tion. He seemed a veritable Boanerges sent to 
earth to instruct and awaken the consciences of 
men. 

In all college circles Dr. Anderson was a domi- 
nant figure. He had the seniors in mental and 
moral philosophy, and a class in art on Saturday 
mornings. It was his invariable custom to con- 
duct the religious services held every morning 
in the chapel, attendance upon which was com- 
pulsory. He rarely absented himself from his 
college duties, often declining invitations that 
meant much for him and for the university, rather 
than disappoint himself and his classes by failure 
to meet with them. In spite of the frequent sight 
of his stately figure, and the almost daily inter- 
course in the classroom, I never saw him on the 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 13 

campus, in the college halls, or in the lecture room, 
without something of that first feeling of awe, 
of restraint, of instinctively righting myself 
physically and morally, as one does involuntarily 
in the presence of a superior personage. The im- 
pression his powerful personality made upon me 
in those unsophisticated days continues with me 
to this hour. Although he grew more human from 
frequent meetings, "With all the humanizing is 
he the austere, rugged, inaccessible mountain, its 
fiery passions hidden, its head above the forests. ' ' 
Dr. Anderson was of heroic stature. Like Saul 
of old, "from his shoulders and upward he was 
higher than any of the people. ' ' He seemed to be 
the sole survivor of an age of patriarchs. He was 
of such gigantic mold that he looked a very king 
among men, a veritable Agamemnon. 

"Sage he stood, 
With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear 
The weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look 
Drew audience and attention still as night 
Or summer's noontide air." 

Intellectually, morally and spiritually he tow- 
ered as high above ordinary men as he did phys- 
ically. He measured up to the conception of an 
Old Testament prophet, — a man called of God for 
a special task, who lived near to God, heard what 
God had to say, and made known God's message 
to the people. He united in himself qualities that 
would have made him eminent as a statesman, 



14 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

reformer, counselor, general, journalist, jurist, 
preacher or publicist. 

In his day Dr. Anderson was "universally recog- 
nized as primus inter pares of great college presi- 
dents and administrators. To those who sat 
under his teaching and felt the impress and im- 
petus of his powerful personality, he seemed equal 
to any task. Often I have wished, as I heard him 
speak, that he held a place worthy of his powers 
at the Capitol in Washington. What a Speaker 
he would have been in the Eepresentative Cham- 
ber! What a Justice on the Supreme Bench! 
What a President he would have made for this 
great Republic! What a preacher of righteous- 
ness and justice and judgment to come! If he 
had followed his own inclinations he would have 
gone into public life. On one occasion he said to 
Dr. Leighton Williams, of New York, Secretary of 
the Niagara Falls Park Commission : "If I could 
have had my way, I should be in public life, and 
here I am teaching boys. ,, At his own choice he 
followed the line of duty instead of his own pref- 
erences, showing the greater strength of char- 
acter. He turned away from all other avenues and 
devoted his superb strength and energies to 
"teaching boys," and to the development of the 
newly organized University, of which he laid 
solid foundation, and which will always stand 
as his monument. 

The springs of a great life are always full of 
interest and meaning and often determine its un- 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 15 

folding and maturing. Like most great men, Dr. 
Anderson was of humble and circumscribed en- 
vironment. Life for him was cast in a home where 

"Poverty, the nurse 
That quickens ready wits and strengthens wills, 
Taught him in youth to play the manly part, 
To do hard tasks with cheerful heart 
And sympathize with mortal ills. ' ' 

He was one of two children of Martin and Jane 
Brewer Anderson, and was born in Brunswick, 
Maine, the seat of Bowdoin College, February 12, 
1815. The other child was a daughter, Maria, 
some years younger, for whom her big brother 
always manifested a keen, almost fatherly affec- 
tion and interest. When Martin was about three 
years old the parents moved to the neighboring 
town of Freeport, to the farm on which the father 
was born and reared. The presence of a college 
in his native town could not have had much in- 
fluence upon the little lad, except possibly to im- 
press on the father and mother the advantages of 
college training, and to awaken in them the desire 
to give their boy the best education the times 
afforded. 

On his father's side young Martin was of 
Scotch-Irish stock, and on his mother's of sturdy 
English ancestry. In stature, in complexion and 
temperament were manifest the characteristics 
peculiar to many other great men of North of 
Ireland origin. He bore this testimony to his for- 



16 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

bears, that they were all plain farmers and 
mechanics, but "they were honest people, and 
patriotic to the core." His grandfather's brothers, 
as well as his grandfather, Jacob Anderson, 
served in the Bevolutionary War. His father, 
Martin Anderson, bore arms in the War of 1812. 
He was a man of the people, a ship-carpenter by 
trade, was actuated by high ideals, and possessed 
great integrity and strength of character. He 
had keen interest in all public affairs, was well 
informed, and was an intelligent and interesting 
talker. A close and tender feeling of intimacy 
always existed between father and son, and bound 
them firmly together. His mother, Jane Brewer, 
was a woman of considerable education, of great 
energy and force of character, of firm decision and 
of deeply religious convictions. 

Little Martin early gave evidence of an active 
mind; he was able to read at three. He had an 
insatiable desire to know the why and wherefore 
of things, and if he had never seen the inside of 
a school or college, he would have found some way, 
as did Lincoln, to acquire the essential facts and 
principles of life, and to become an instructor 
and leader of men. He spent his childhood doing 
" chores," in growing strong, and in gaining such 
knowledge as the meager schooling of that day 
afforded. He early became an apprentice in his 
father's trade, and in the summer, while other 
boys were idling away their time, he was work- 
ing in the shipyard. He once electrified a great 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 17 

audience by saying : "I thank the Lord that my 
father taught me when I was a boy what it was 
to do a hard day's work." In these early years 
his religious training was not neglected. His 
mother was a Baptist of the strictest type, and 
used to lead him, a little lad, by the hand, two 
miles across the fields to the Baptist Church, where 
services were maintained by a lay-member read- 
ing a sermon when the church was pastorless. He 
was taught reverence for God and for His day, 
and was instructed in those foundation principles 
of life and conduct that dominated him all through 
his life. He was regarded as exemplary in his 
habits and speech, and as a "model" for boys of 
less wise and painstaking parents. 

When Martin had reached the age of sixteen, 
an accident in the shipyard incapacitated the 
father from further work at his trade, compelling 
him, in order to maintain his family, to turn 
his attention to teaching, and was probably a turn- 
ing point in the young man's life. From that time 
the burdens of the household were shifted more 
and more from the shoulders of the father to those 
of the son, who materially added to the revenue, 
and was deferred to in all family matters. About 
this time the family moved to Bath, an old sea- 
port town, noted as a shipbuilding center. Oppor- 
tunities were thus afforded for larger educational 
advantages and for steady and remunerative em- 
ployment. Two new influences now came into the 
son's life. The first was the stimulating effect of 



18 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MGCH TO ME^ 

the literary and debating club of the town in 
which he acquired the habit of " thinking on his 
feet," and of patient research and study, which 
he carried on through life. The other was the 
religious awakening which stirred the town pro- 
foundly, arousing many to the need of repentance 
and newness of life. Among the number that pro- 
fessed conversion was young Anderson, who 
united with the Baptist church, and identified him- 
self heartily with all its interests. He had now 
reached the age when plans are usually formed 
and decisions made that have a decidedly deter- 
mining influence upon one's life-work. He was 
serious and full of concern as to what answer he 
should make to the question, What he should do, 
that was now forcing itself upon him. 

From boyhood he had cherished the hope of 
going to college, but with no means of his own 
and no family resources to draw upon, how could 
his eager desire be realized? The claims of his 
family made the obstacles loom so large that they 
seemed insurmountable. He determined not to 
lose hope or to give up. With something of the 
sneer with which Nathaniel asked: "Can there 
any good thing come out of Nazareth f" we can 
imagine men of Bath inquiring : " Can there any 
good thing come out of a shipyard?" He applied 
himself more diligently than ever to his work in 
the shipyard, setting aside a part of his earnings 
for the family support, and another part for his 
college expenses. At the same time he kept up 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 19 

his preparatory studies. Gradually the way 
opened, the obstacles disappeared, or were over- 
come, and in the year 1836, having turned twenty- 
one, he set out on foot with his pack for Water- 
ville, now Colby College. 

This small Baptist institution in those early 
years, because of meager funds, had to face many 
struggles and perplexing problems in order to 
maintain itself, as did many of its students. Those 
were days of hardship and self-denial, of which 
young men of to-day know but little. By close 
application, and an economical use of his time, the 
shipyard apprentice was able to take excellent 
rank, and to earn sufficient funds by acting as 
"commissary," and doing "odd jobs," to pay 
the bills, which, if not large, were often the most 
perplexing problem the boys of his day had to 
meet. His early struggles to get an education 
gave him a keen sympathy, when he became a col- 
lege president, with young men who had to make 
their way through at Rochester. He would give 
thoughtful consideration and effort as to how 
he could render the most helpful service, and 
assumed financial obligations when to do so 
simply was adding largely to his already heavy 
burdens. 

Little is known of his college life outside of 
study hours and the lecture room. He must have 
been a leader and a masterful spirit among his f eL 
lows. He probably never took kindly to athletics, 
for he believed, as he often used to say to us stu- 



20 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

dents, that there was only so much energy stored 
up in a man, and if he exhausted it in football, 
baseball or boxing, he would have none for mental 
application and study. Probably from his work 
in the shipyard he grew fond of the water and 
became an expert swimmer. Dr. Kendrick is 
authority for the statement that on warm summer 
afternoons in college young Anderson found re- 
freshing pleasure and delight in sporting in the 
cool waters of the Kennebec with Samuel L. Cald- 
well, who afterward became president of Vassar 
College, and Benjamin F. Butler, who became a 
national figure in political and military life. From 
many things said in Dr. Anderson's " Chapel 
Talks/ ' and in the classroom, there is good rea- 
son for thinking that as students, young Ander- 
son and Butler were antagonistic spirits, and that 
they settled several disputed questions other than 
by reason and argument. The traits manifested 
by Butler as a student clung to him through life, 
and may have suggested the warning Dr. Ander- 
son often gave in his most vigorous style to the 
students: " Young men, be careful what you do 
in college. A man's reputation in college will 
stick to him all through life, as Nessus's shirt to 
Hercules. ' ' 

During his four years in college frequent cor- 
respondence was carried on between the father 
and son. The son's letters, many of which have 
been preserved, show not only his deep interest 
in and affection for those at home, but his alert- 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 21 

ness to all the events occurring in the college 
world, and to all topics of public and political im- 
port. He never returned to Bath except for 
brief visits. After entering upon his duties as 
Professor at Waterville, which he did the second 
year after his graduation, he had his family join 
him there in 1845, where three years later his 
mother died. 

At the time of his conversion young Martin's 
mind was seriously turned to the ministry. The 
question of his life work appeared too momentous 
to be decided hastily, so he put it off, determined 
to be guided largely by providential indications. 
After his graduation, the way seemed to open for 
him to follow his cherished desire, and in the au- 
tumn he entered the theological seminary at New- 
ton. Possibly from lack of funds, more probably 
from the feeling that he should be near his parents 
in their advancing years, he decided not to return 
to the seminary for the middle year, but instead to 
take up the work of teaching. That one year in 
the seminary, however, was eventful for him, for 
among the students for whom he formed special 
attachment was Ezekiel G. Robinson, who after- 
ward became the distinguished president of the 
Rochester Theological Seminary. The associa- 
tions of student days were renewed and 
strengthened during the years of their residence 
together in Rochester. Dr. Robinson later became 
president of Brown University, accepting thus the 
office that had been tendered to Dr. Anderson and 



22 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

declined by him. Under Dr. Bobinson's able ad- 
ministration "Old Brown' ' enjoyed again some- 
thing of the enviable reputation that it attained 
under President Wayland. Dr. Eobinson won dis- 
tinction in the educational world as a scholar and 
as a teacher and theologian. 

In the autumn following young Anderson 's year 
in the Newton Institution, he was chosen tutor in 
Latin, Greek and mathematics in his Alma Mater 
in Waterville. He rendered acceptable service in 
this department for three years, when he was ap- 
pointed to the chair of rhetoric, for which he felt 
in many ways he was especially qualified. In the 
days of his college presidency, years later, he 
seemed to show a keener interest in the conduct 
and development of this department than in any 
other, although he was qualified to take the classes 
of any department in a professor's enforced ab- 
sence. While professor at Waterville he passed 
through the painful experience of seeing the young 
lady to whom he was engaged, stricken, gradually 
weaken, and finally pass away, breaking up many 
cherished plans and filling his days with gloom. 

As his own health afterward appeared to be 
somewhat impaired, he decided to spend the 
winter vacation of 1842-43 in the more genial 
climate of Washington, D. C. He supplied the 
pulpit of the E Street Baptist church of that city, 
and afterward had the opportunity of preaching 
in the House of Eepresentatives, where he made 
so deep an impression that his friends in and 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 23 

outside Congress endeavored to persuade him to 
settle as pastor in Washington. He declined to 
listen to their pleadings, for he cherished the firm 
hope of returning to Newton. Possibly the way 
would open for him to do so the next autumn. The 
development of a weakness of the throat, causing 
at times an almost entire loss of voice, a trouble 
from which he suffered all through his life, de- 
cided him, however, to give up all thought of the 
ministry and to devote himself to teaching. 

About two years later Professor Anderson 
made a visit to New York, and supplied the pulpit 
of the Tabernacle Baptist church, situated at 
Tenth Street and Second Avenue, at that time one 
of the strong, substantial churches of the city. 
One of the active, influential men in the church 
was Deacon Joshua Gilbert, a man of large busi- 
ness affairs and a brother of the wife of William 
Colgate, much esteemed in Baptist circles in the 
city. After the morning service the young pro- 
fessor-preacher was invited by Deacon Gilbert to 
his home for dinner. The house was of the home- 
like, hospitable, Southern type occupying a large 
open plot on West Fourth Street. The family 
consisted then of Deacon and Mrs. Gilbert, one 
son, Joseph, and two daughters, Ann and Eliza- 
beth Mary. The meeting of Martin and Eliza- 
beth, like many such "accidental meetings," if not 
a case of love at first sight, was of such mutual 
understanding as soon to ripen into an engage- 
ment which terminated, because of the sudden 



24 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

death of Deacon Gilbert shortly afterwards, in a 
speedy marriage. 

In all externals, the bride and groom were the 
oppo sites of each other. It was the marriage of 
raggedness to refinement, of greatness to gentle- 
ness, of early struggles and hardships to careful 
and cultured city breeding. But as opposites are 
said to have more tastes and traits in common, 
they seemed bound together by more than usual 
bonds. Their married life was one of rare union 
of interests and happiness. The marriage took 
place in August, 1848, and Professor Anderson 
took his bride to Waterville, where she made a 
home for the father and sister of her husband, 
who had been living quietly by themselves since 
the mother's death. For two years they con- 
tinued to live in Waterville, years marked by 
happiness and peace in the home, but full of dis- 
quietude and unrest for the young husband, be- 
cause of the deep sense of restricted environment, 
and of longing for some larger field of usefulness- 
and service. The animated teacher felt within 
him the stirrings of a larger, fuller and more 
responsible life ; something possibly of the power- 
ful educational force he was to become as the 
head of a growing college in another State. In 
Eochester, in after years, the students who came 
to know and appreciate Mrs. Anderson found 
that, in appearance, taste, carriage and dress, she 
was a lady of the type rarely seen to-day. She 
was an unfailing source of helpfulness and in- 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 25 

spiration to Dr. Anderson. Like Mrs. Gladstone, 
she was always to be found close by the side of 
her husband, loyally supporting him in every good 
endeavor. In all matters of moment Dr. Ander- 
son sought her counsel, and, in rendering his de- 
cisions, relied upon her clear, almost infallible in- 
sight. She possessed great tact, artistic and 
cultured taste, admirable judgment and rare 
gentleness and grace of manner. While she was 
deeply interested in all that pertained to the wel- 
fare of the University, about the only opportunity 
the students had of meeting her was at the senior 
reception or the president's levee of commence- 
ment week, when she was the main attraction of 
the largely attended and enjoyable gatherings. 

While he was restless and impatient under the 
routine work of the class-room, the tender of the 
editorship of The New York Recorder, a Baptist 
weekly, published in New York City, was made 
to Professor Anderson. The opportunities 
afforded by a great city, and the wide influence of 
an editor were considerations that appealed 
strongly to him, and in 1850 he resigned his pro- 
fessorship at Waterville and went to New York 
to assume the editorial conduct of The Recorder, 
which he continued for three years. Associated 
with him in the new undertaking was Rev. James 
S. Dickerson, D.D., who gave his special attention 
to the financial management of the paper. At 
once, on the new editor assuming charge, the 
paper came into marked prominence, exert- 



26 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

ing a compelling and inspiring influence in 
the field of religions journalism, and increased 
notably in circulation. Dr. Anderson's editorials 
bore evidence of alertness, fearlessness, great wis- 
dom and sound judgment, while the new editor 
showed vision, profound conviction and tactful 
leadership, — qualities essential to a successful 
journalist. 

The two great questions then prominently en- 
gaging the attention of Baptists were Bible re- 
vision and the removal of Madison University 
from Hamilton, N. Y., to Bochester, a stirring city 
in the western section of the State. Editor Ander- 
son gave much space, wise discretion and great 
discernment to the discussion of these questions 
of momentous import at that time to all Baptists. 
He was also an ardent advocate of the cause of 
foreign missions, and did all he could to stimulate 
a larger interest in the churches and to further 
the efforts to enlarge the work. In the contro- 
versy which resulted in the formation in 1850 of 
the American Bible Union by a majority who 
withdrew from the American and Foreign Bible 
Society for the purpose of " procuring and circu- 
lating the most faithful version of the Word of 
God throughout the world,' ' The Recorder boldly 
championed the opposition against such advocates 
as Drs. Spencer H. Cone, Thomas Armitage and 
Thomas J. Conant. 

With respect to the "removal controversy, ' ' the 
paper from the first had been favorable to the 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 27 

change, and gave the majority of the trustees and 
of the committee, who had espoused the removal 
project, efficient aid and support through its 
columns. Legal difficulties, however, arose, mak- 
ing the transfer of the property interests impos- 
sible. Those who had committed themselves to 
the undertaking, however, were not to be baffled. 
They obtained a charter and in November, 1850, 
the University of Rochester was organized in the 
city of Rochester with a faculty of Hive professors 
from Madison University and "more students,' ' 
Dr. Raymond said, "than we had reason to ex- 
pect." The springing of the University into 
being fully equipped, like Minerva from the head 
of Jove, according to John N. Wilder, first Presi- 
dent of the Board of Trustees, furnished Ralph 
Waldo Emerson an illustration of Yankee enter- 
prise. In a humorous vein Emerson thus pictured 
the rapid development of the university: "A 
landlord in Rochester had an old hotel which he 
thought would rent for more as a university, so 
he put in a few books, sent for a coach-load of 
professors, bought some philosophical apparatus, 
and by the time green peas were ripe had gradu- 
ated a large class of students." Emerson showed 
himself to be a better prophet than historian 
when he said of the university some years later to 
Professor Joseph H. Grilmore: "I have watched 
over it in its cradle. I am very certain I shall 
never follow it to its grave.' ' 
At the beginning, hopeful as all the leaders in 



28 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

the enterprise were, the prospects were not flatter- 
ing. At the best it was largely an experiment. 
There was no broad campus, with over-arching 
trees, and no imposing array of buildings, no body 
of alumni to give solidity and support, and no en- 
dowment. The college was domiciled in a plain, 
unattractive building located on West Main 
Street, adjacent to the canal, known as the "Old 
United States Hotel.' ' This served as dormitory, 
chapel and recitation rooms for all depart- 
ments of instruction, the whole equipment being 
sheltered under one roof. The students ' rooms 
were heated with small box stoves, and the boys 
had to cut their own wood in the basement and 
carry it up stairs, thus providing a kind of 
athletics, as Dr. Morehouse once termed it, which 
many did not appreciate keenly. Editor Ander- 
son and The Recorder continued to give loyal and 
substantial support to the new educational under- 
taking. The second year showed marked develop- 
ment and a settled conviction that the future was 
assured. 

The men charged with the success of the new 
enterprise did not believe that buildings and a 
campus make a college. They rather were actu- 
ated by something of the conviction that President 
Garfield had when he said: "A college is a student 
at one end of a log and Mark Hopkins at the 
other, ' ' and they began to look about for a presi- 
dent of the stamp of Mark Hopkins. Their choice 
fell upon Martin B. Anderson, the young editor of 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 29 

The New York Recorder. After mature delibera- 
tion and on the advice of many friends, chief 
among whom was Dr. William R. Williams, pastor 
of the Amity Baptist church, New York, who was 
one of the first and firmest advocates for the re- 
moval, Dr. Anderson accepted the responsible 
office and entered upon his new duties with the 
opening of the college year in the autumn of 1853. 
Dr. Anderson had the highest regard and esteem 
for Dr. Williams, and when his engagements per- 
mitted would be found in Amity church among 
Dr. Williams's most attentive listeners. He often 
accompanied him to his home after the evening 
service, and while Dr. Williams was resting, re- 
clining on his couch, they would have long and 
interesting conferences on subjects of mutual and 
absorbing interest. Dr. Anderson often expressed 
the earnest hope that someone would "Boswell" 
Dr. Williams. 

In the same year that Dr. Anderson became 
president of the University of Rochester, his 
friend and fellow- student at Newton, Dr. Ezekiel 
G. Robinson, then pastor of the Ninth Street 
church, Cincinnati, Ohio, was elected to the chair 
of theology in the theological department of the 
University. In recognition of the honor that had 
come to its former student-professor, Waterville 
College conferred, in 1853, upon the new presi- 
dent of the University of Rochester the degree of 
Doctor of Laws. During the three years of Dr. 
Anderson's editorial management of The Be- 



30 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

corder he had niade his home in Brooklyn. His 
church affiliations were with the First church of 
Williamsburg, known as the Eastern District of 
Brooklyn. His father during these years served 
as deacon of this church. His only sister, Maria, 
in whose education and advancement he had 
always manifested keen interest, died while the 
family resided in Williamsburg. It is interesting 
to note that Bev. Morgan J. Bhees, D.D., the fifth 
pastor of the Williamsburg church, — its pastor 
during the greater part of the period of Dr. 
Anderson 's membership, his pastorate extending 
from July, 1850, to his death in January, 1853, — 
was grandfather of Dr. Bush Bhees, now the 
esteemed president of the University of Bochester. 
Although Dr. Anderson entered upon his duties 
as president of the University of Bochester in the 
autumn of 1853, his inauguration did not take 
place until the January following. No immediate 
change or marked development was manifest on 
the coming of the new president. Not until three 
years had gone did the number of students show 
any large accessions. In 1856 the entering class 
numbered forty-seven, and the whole number en- 
rolled was 163. This increase brightened the out- 
look and led to a movement for a new location and 
a new building or buildings, as the old quarters 
had become inadequate and wretchedly out of 
date. The burden of responsibility and leader- 
ship for the new undertaking fell upon the 
shoulders of the president. He began a personal 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 31 

canvass for funds, but met with many discourage- 
ments and rebuffs. He secured the appropriation 
of $25,000 from the State Legislature, provided a 
like sum was contributed by private individuals 
and friends of the University. He was also 
cheered and surprised by some large and unex- 
pected gifts. By the autumn of 1859 he had suc- 
ceeded sufficiently to justify the trustees in be- 
ginning work, and the new building was dedicated 
with appropriate exercises November 22, 1861. 

The site secured for the college was an open 
field on University Avenue, eight acres of which 
were given by Hon. Azariah Boody and the re- 
mainder obtained by purchase ; and at the time of 
dedication, by unanimous action of the trustees, 
the plain massive stone structure was designated 
' ' Anderson Hall." When the college moved into 
its commodious quarters, the seminary, as a dis- 
tinct department, under the presiding genius of 
Dr. Robinson, continued to occupy the "Old 
Hotel" until by the generosity of Mr. John B. 
Trevor, of Yonkers, N. Y., a substantial home was 
provided for it on East Avenue. From time to 
time new buildings have been grouped about An- 
derson Hall until now the campus, with broad, 
beautiful avenues, over-arching elms and a fine 
array of buildings, presents an attractiveness 
of which the founders could have only faintly 
dreamed. 

The outbreak of the Civil War, heralded by the 
shot on Sumter in 1861, had a disquieting influence 



32 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

upon the college, and aroused to a high pitch the 
patriotism of a man of the antecedents of Dr. 
Anderson. From the first "the conservative was 
transformed into a radical. " As he himself said : 
"I have turned myself into a professional agitator 
during the time." He gave voice to his patriotic 
loyalty in chapel. He thundered out his indigna 
tion and righteous wrath in the pulpit. He swayed 
by his eloquence vast audiences that gathered in 
Corinthian Hall. He was recognized as a "leader 
in every civic or military meeting which it was 
possible for him to attend." At a great meeting 
in Eochester just after the attack on Sumter, it is 
said, he became so impatient with the indecision 
and indirectness of the speaker that he arose from 
his seat on the platform, waved him aside with 
his right arm, gripped the audience by his first 
words, aroused and thrilled them with his force 
ful eloquence and enthusiasm, and raised a regi 
ment on the spot. A few days later, through his 
efforts this regiment was equipped and ready to 
go to the front. He shared the fervor of Pro 
fessor Isaac F. Quinby, of the mathematical de- 
partment (a graduate of West Point), who 
"raised the first two-years' regiment in the State 
of New York, and served until the close of the 
war." Dr. Anderson found himself greatly per- 
plexed when he came to advising the students 
about enlisting. Of the forty-five in all, — twenty 
from the under-classmen and twenty-five from the 
senior class and the alumni who volunteered to go 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 33 

to the front, — ten never returned. Their names 
are commemorated on a marble tablet in the 
chapel of Anderson Hall. They were also in- 
scribed in the heart of the president, who conld 
never speak of them or of those stirring days 
without signs of deep emotion. The stress of 
those stirring and strenuous days, following 
closely upon the anxieties of the building project, 
told heavily upon Dr. Anderson's health. To 
avoid a complete breakdown, toward the end of 
the year 1862 he and Mrs. Anderson sailed for 
Europe for a year of recuperation and rest. Dur- 
ing his absence he made an extensive collection of 
etchings and engravings, which he afterward used 
effectively in his popular Saturday morning lec- 
tures, open to the students and to lovers of art 
in the city. 

On his return he found the University suffering 
from the effects of the war. The number of stu- 
dents had diminished, and funds were low and 
hard to get. Full of apprehension, Dr. Anderson 
felt that the college should have an additional en- 
dowment of $200,000. Just when the days were 
darkest, in the spring of 1867, the presidency of 
Brown University was tendered him with strong 
pressure for him to accept. There was much in 
the new offer that was alluring. While he was 
giving the matter serious and thoughtful con- 
ideration, a meeting of Rochester citizens was 
aeld to protest against his going. As an outcome 
Dr. Anderson declined the offer. About $30,000 



34 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

was raised for a house for the president, funds 
were obtained for a new laboratory building, and 
the university entered upon a new era of quiet, 
healthy growth and of strong, molding influence 
Upon the life of the city and of the denomination 
with which it was affiliated. New honors came to 
Dr. Anderson, who began to be known as "the 
Prince of College Presidents," and as "the Peer- 
less President. ' ' He was appointed a member of 
the State Board of Charities, and of the Commis- 
sion "to preserve a public park at Niagara 
Falls. ' ' He was also made a member of the com- 
mission "to consider the better government of 
cities." An honor that came to him in 1872, 
which he valued highly, was his election to the 
membership of the Cobden Club of England. 

When Dr. Anderson went to Rochester his 
father accompanied him there and made his home 
with him during his last years, passing away in 
1875 at the age of eighty-six. One of the beautiful 
pictures that always comes vividly before me 
when I take a retrospective look Rochesterward 
is the towering form of Dr. Anderson and his 
aged father, with white flowing hair, and spare 
but erect figure, locked arm in arm, taking their 
"constitutional ,, out University Avenue, or 
around the campus. The tender devotion and 
ready helpfulness which the stalwart son ex- 
hibited toward the frail father was as beautiful as 
it was rare. 

Probably Dr. Anderson was in the full strength 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 35 

of his powers, and the college was enjoying' the 
greatest prosperity it had ever attained in 1872, 
the year of my enrollment among the students. 
The University of Rochester at that time was 
everywhere recognized as one of the best of the 
smaller colleges. Dr. Anderson was never favor- 
able to the idea of a large college. His conception 
of a college was as far removed as possible from 
that of the great universities of to-day. His 
friends believed he could have gone before the 
Legislature and secured a large appropriation for 
a great university in the western section of the 
State, if he had been so disposed, but he did not 
want it; " would have none of it." He questioned 
whether some of the larger colleges were not out- 
growing the training functions proper to an 
American college. His idea of a college was that 
the professors should all be men of recognized 
standing, and that there should never be so many 
students that each one could not come in close 
contact with the professors, and the professors in 
personal and intimate relations with each of the 
students. He did not favor the employment of 
tutors in any department. He emphasized the 
moral and religious side of instruction, and at- 
tendance upon chapel exercises was compulsory. 
Students were required to attend daily the 
lectures in their different subjects, and to be pre- 
pared to recite when called upon, or be marked 
accordingly. Excuses were only granted in cases 
of sickness or extreme necessity. Men were put 



36 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

upon their honor; their sense of integrity was 
appealed to; they were expected to be manly in 
their deportment and conduct. There were no 
dormitories at Eochester, because Dr. Anderson 
regarded the dormitory system as of doubtful 
value. In a highly intelluctual, moral and re- 
ligious city like Eochester he believed it was better 
for the boys to find room and board in private 
Christian homes than to be grouped together in 
buildings set apart for them on the campus. The 
brisk walk in the open air to and from the college 
afforded exercise which many would not have 
taken if they had lived under the eaves of the 
University. 

Dr. Anderson was a born disciplinarian. By 
nature he was made to command. He would have 
found the career of a party leader, a cabinet mem- 
ber, or a general congenial. The boys all stood in 
awe of him. When they were lining up ready for 
a rush on the campus, if Dr. Anderson suddenly 
appeared, they would scatter as leaves before the 
wind. When they were engaged in "gum-shoe 
fights" in the halls, and Dr. Anderson called from 
the stairway or his office door: "Boys! What 
does this mean?" they would instantly drop their 
arms to their sides and march in dignified silence 
into their classrooms. His towering figure and 
his dominating personality exerted a strong re- 
straining influence about the college. While 
among themselves the boys usually spoke of him 
as "Prex" or "Our Prexy," they had such regard 



MAETIN_ BREWER ANDERSON # 37 

for Mm, they never transcended the bounds of 
propriety in their jokes at banquets or reunions. 
His name was invariably joined with Dr. Ken- 
drick's, who was a great favorite with all classes 
and was affectionately spoken of as "Kai Gar." 
Nothing was more dreaded by an under-classman 
than to be summoned into Dr. Anderson 's private 
office, or to receive his reprimand. Well do I 
remember the day when he tapped me on the 
shoulder, as I was walking through the hall, and 
said: "Come to my room immediately after 
chapel Thursday morning. ' ' What it could mean 
filled me with confusion and great perplexity 
until the stated hour arrived. When I appeared 
before him the meeting was anything but what I 
had conceived. Looking at me with his piercing 
gaze as if he looked right through me, he said: 
"I have been wanting to talk with you about your 
work in college ; how you are getting on, and what 
your plans are for your life-work." He expressed 
a deep interest in my future, asked me to come to 
him any time that I felt he could be of help to me, 
and then inquired about my exercise. "You are 
looking pale," he said. "Walking is the best ex- 
ercise. You must keep out in the open. Walk 
more, walk more!" A classmate who had been 
asked to report to Dr. Anderson's room was so 
frightened by the summons that he would not go 
until he found some student willing to go with 
him. At length he was successful, although 
greatly embarrassed by his classmate's kindness. 



38 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

His appreciation soon took wings, however, when 
he learned on presenting himself at the presi- 
dent's office that the other man had been ordered 
to come at the same hour. But it was in such 
personal interviews, and in seeking to know the 
life and needs of the students, that Dr. Anderson 
supplemented and strengthened the work of the 
lecture-room, largely guiding and shaping the 
lives of the boys to his will. In my own case, 
after my interview, on the street, in the college 
hall, or at his home, he would speak a word, or 
give a bit of counsel, showing his eyes were upon 
me and his interest alive to my future. 

To strangers, probably to most of the students, 
Dr. Anderson appeared blunt, brusque, rigorous 
and autocratic. He always awakened wholesome 
respect and fear. But under his rugged surface 
there was a tender heart and a sensitive spirit. 
A friend who knew him well said: "He is the 
easiest man in the world to snub." He looked 
upon all the students as "his boys," for it was 
a grief to him that he had no children of his own. 
He had a fatherly affection and concern for his 
students while they were in college. One autumn 
Saturday afternoon the members of two classes 
were playing a match game of baseball on the 
campus. It fell to my lot to keep the score. My 
friend, Duane Squires, was at the bat. He was 
eager to make a run and batted with such force 
as to wrench his knee out of place and fell in a 
heap over the plate. The boys picked him up 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 39 

and carried him to Anderson Hall, where they 
made him as comfortable as possible. Dr. Ander- 
son, coming out of his room, manifested the great- 
est interest, spread the large cape he used to 
wear over him, and remained with him until he 
felt it was safe for him to make the effort to get 
to his home. Then Dr. Anderson helped him up 
tenderly, told him to take his arm and lean heavily 
upon him while he walked slowly with him to the 
avenue and put him on the street car that passed 
his door. Dr. Anderson also had great pride in 
the success of his boys after they had left college. 
When the affairs of the university or engagements 
to lecture or speak brought him to New York he 
made it a part of his duty to call upon as many of 
his former boys as his time would permit, in 
order that they might be reassured of his unbroken 
interest and that their love for their Alma Mater 
might be quickened amid the many absorbing de- 
mands of a great city. In the days of my manage- 
ment of The Christian Inquirer he called on one 
occasion at the office in Temple Court. It was 
only a hurried interview; but the fact that he 
sought me out, that he put himself to any trouble, 
and that his few words were full of encourage- 
ment, made a deep impression and drew me closer 
to him than ever. 

Dr. Anderson possessed comprehensive and 
liberal scholarship. His attainments were many 
and varied. In his case "one science only" would 
not "one genius fit." He compassed all sciences. 



40 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

He took his classes through mental and moral 
philosophy and political economy, including bank- 
ing, wealth, taxation, protection and free trade. 
He made a careful study of such subjects as edu- 
cation, jurisprudence, international commerce, 
treaties, and evolution, and was much in demand 
as a lecturer in cities, east and west, and as a 
speaker at conferences and conventions. He was 
as far removed as possible from an animated 
cyclopedia or a perambulating parchment. Knowl- 
edge with him was not the " be-all and end-all.' ' 
It was not an acquisition so thrust into the fore- 
ground that you could see nothing else, but the 
instrument, subordinate in character, that he used 
with great effectiveness because of the harmoni- 
ous coordination of all his faculties. 

Dr. Anderson had a compelling and masterful 
personality. He had the ability to do for his 
pupils what Immanuel Kant said David Hume had 
done for him: He could wake them from their 
dogmatic slumbers. He illustrated in a notable 
way what Milton said : 

"Under his forming hands a creature grew." 

He stamped himself upon the college, upon 
every department, upon the students, and upon 
everything with which he had to do. He believed, 
and he made every student believe, that character 
is the greatest thing in education. It is not so 
much what one learns as from whom he learns it. 
One may not as a rule remember much of what 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 41 

he learned in college, but if lie had a great teacher 
he cannot forget the lasting impression that was 
made npon him. 

As a college president Dr. Anderson stood in a 
class by himself. To his remarkable personality 
and high scholarly attainments were joined un- 
usual ability as an organizer and administrator. 
He gave his personal attention and supervision to 
all the affairs of the college, and to the conduct of 
each department. Everything that concerned a 
teacher or student was of vital concern to him. He 
was often brought in contrast with Dr. Ebenezer 
Dodge, his contemporary president of Madison, 
now Colgate University. They were the presi- 
dents of the two Baptist colleges in the State, and 
occasionally appeared on the same platform. 
They were both tall and of dignified and impres- 
sive bearing. While strikingly unlike in other 
particulars, the emphasis they put upon funda- 
mentals was the same. At the head of the larger 
colleges of that time were Eliot of Harvard, 
Dwight of Yale, Barnard of Columbia and McCosh 
of Princeton, among whom in no way was Dr. 
Anderson an inconspicuous figure. 

Dr. Anderson had his own conception of what 
a college should do for a man. President Patten 
held that it is " better to go to college and loaf 
than not to go at all." President Wilson, his suc- 
cessor, said: "If you do not go to college to 
study, better not go at all." Dr. Anderson was 
nearer right, it seems to me, when he said : i ' The 



42 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

benefit of a college training is to learn how to 
study. ' ' His injunction was : ' i Spend much time 
in the library; become familiar with the title- 
pages of books. Do not try to read everything, 
but learn where things are, so you can use them 
when you want to. ' ' The chief value of a college 
education, as Dr. Anderson was given to saying, 
is to be able "to bring things to pass." His 
chief business was "to make men." He knew 
what was in a student, and the process needful 
to bring it out. In the class-room when with 
piercing gaze he looked upon the student who was 
reciting and asked: "Just what do you mean 
by that?" the student felt those eyes could look 
right through him. Pretense and shamming were 
soon unmasked in his presence. No young man 
could take the course at Rochester without having 
Dr. Anderson's "mark" stamped upon him. This 
came to be regarded as the best possible passport 
to young men entering professional life or having 
in view an important post in some large financial 
or industrial enterprise. 

Probably the most singularly notable thing 
about Dr. Anderson's long educational career was 
that he published no book. No work compiled by 
him stands to his credit giving the result of his 
long years of patient research and study. He felt 
that he had something bigger to do. In 1882 Dr. 
Anderson wrote to a friend: "The alumni have 
for two years requested me to take a year's rest 
and prepare some manuscript or printed matter 



JMARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 43 

for the press. The idea of leaving my work and 
devoting myself to manufacturing books is to my 
mind sheer nonsense." Dr. Anderson's chief con- 
cern was to make men, and he wanted no other 
monument than brave, strong, fearless, Godly 
men, " doing with their might what their hands 
found to do" in the great task of furthering the 
intellectual and moral progress of the world. He 
did, however, find time to lecture and to write a 
great deal on a variety of themes. A series of 
articles by him appeared in the Christian Review, 
and numerous articles, lectures, discourses and 
reports were published in various periodicals, in 
pamphlet form and in Johnson's Cyclopedia, of 
which he was associate editor. In his last year, 
as his strength would permit, he occupied himself 
with revising some of his addresses with a view to 
publication. Since his death a compilation of his 
addresses has been made and published in two 
volumes under the title, " Papers and Addresses," 
the editing being a labor of love by Professor 
William C. Morey, the junior professor in the uni- 
versity, under Dr. Anderson. 

Dr. Anderson's Chapel Talks 

The distinguishing feature of Dr. Anderson's 
college administration, and that which probably 
contributed more largely than he knew to the suc- 
cessful carrying out of his purpose, making a 
strong moral impress upon every student, was 



44 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

his i i chapel talks, ' ' in which he exercised what he 
termed the " editorial function of the teacher.' ' 
These talks were sometimes suggested by the 
passage of Scripture which he read at the chapel 
exercises and sometimes by the local, State or 
national questions that occupied the attention and 
thought of the day. That some idea may be 
gained of the nature of his " chapel talks" based 
on a Bible selection the following report, printed 
in the Campus of 1883, may serve as a sample. 

The morning Scripture lesson was Ecclesiastes 
VII, and after reading the fifth verse: "It is 
better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a 
man to hear the song of fools," Dr. Anderson 
paused and said: 

"The capacity to bear rebuke or criticism is a 
capacity which hardly comes naturally to young 
men; but you will do well to cultivate this habit 
of profiting by the criticism you everywhere re- 
ceive — by hostile and unfriendly criticism, as well 
as by that of friends. Be sure that your enemies 
will shoot their critical arrows at the joints of 
your harness. They pretty generally hit those 
places. They know you better than you know 
yourself. Be careful then, I say, to profit by 
the criticism of those opposed to you — those who 
are hostile to you. 

1 1 There are some men in the world who seem to 
have a divine commission to set things right with 
reference to other people. They are meddlesome, 
disagreeable persons, but you cannot afford to 



r 

wrrygr MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 45 

neglect even their criticism. No man knows him- 
self fully. People are not always conscious of 
their own blunders. Always profit by the advice 
of every critic — no matter how fastidious, or how 
hypercritical. 

"Another kind of criticism is that of friends. 
Of such a character are the suggestions and advice 
of your teachers and associates, and such is the 
criticism in your society relations. Although you 
may not agree with your critics, think over what 
they say. There may be more in it than you real- 
ize at first. 

"The same applies to men in society, in busi- 
ness, on the street. Everywhere and always hold 
yourself ready to profit by the criticisms and re- 
bukes of others. Every man, or almost every man, 
has clinging to him some idiosyncrasy — some 
peculiarity of manner, some peculiarity of pro- 
nunciation. No one of us is free. Be patient 
then, and accept with thankfulness all criticism 
that you receive. 

"I have had some curious experience in this 
direction. I remember once being put in charge 
of a junior class. Among other duties I was 
obliged to correct their orations and essays. I 
remember, in particular, one young man's oration. 
He was a man of splendid intellect, but expressed 
himself very clumsily. His thought was excellent ; 
but I spent, I remember, several hours in correct- 
ing his work, and then sent for the young man to 
come to my office. I was troubled with young- 
ness, I know, but I went over the matter as judici- 
ously as possible. But the young man was hurt. 



46 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

He never got over it. He ever afterward looked 
at me askance. Another man came to me with an 
essay which he wished to have corrected. I went 
over it once, and he re-wrote it and brought it to 
me again. A second time I went over it, and a 
second time did he re-write it ; and it was not until 
his work had been criticised and re-written three 
times, that I felt I could safely leave it. The man 
was terribly vexed; but his production gave him 
the first place at Commencement. Well, that man 
— he died not long after (laughter) — always had 
a sense of dislike toward me. I did what I did 
from a sense of duty. It would have been much 
easier for me to allow his work to pass as it first 
came to me. 

"This state of mind, however, all of you are 
liable to fall into, and I would caution you to pre- 
pare yourselves and train yourselves carefully to 
bear criticism. It is an excellent thing to be able 
to bear the ' rebuke of the wise. ' There are plenty 
of men, though, who would rather hear the 'song 
of fools.' You know how this is. It is so easy 
to do as 'our men' do. 

" 'For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, 
so is the laughter of the fool.' This is manifest, 
also. 'Say not thou, what is the cause that the 
former days were better than these? for thou dost 
not inquire wisely concerning this.' Here is 
hinted the universal tendency among men toward 
pessimism. I was talking with a gentleman last 
evening who constantly looks upon the dark side 
of things. Every day the world is worse; each 
day it is becoming more wicked. Well, I sug- 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 47 

gested that I could see no indications of the truth 
of his lament. So far as I could see, the world 
wagged on about as usual. You meet everywhere 
a class of persons who take this view of life: 
The world is to-day worse than it ever was before ! 
Nothing to them is done as it should be. The 
country is on the brink of ruin! We are in the 
midst of a crisis! Well, we are always in the 
midst of a crisis. I have seen the country ruined 
time and again. But somehow we have come out 
all right. There is a Providence in this country — ■ 
a providence which teaches us of the presence of 
the power of God and a general over-ruling of 
men's blunders and failures." 

The "talks" suggested by the events of the day 
were usually more vehement and vigorous. Those 
were stirring times in the 70 % and Dr. Anderson 
found in the "current events"— State, national, 
international, civil, educational and religious, — 
frequent topics too suggestive of moral lessons to 
be allowed to pass without comment. He often 
had so much to say that he did not hesitate to cut 
largely into the lecture hour following the chapel 
exercises. As he warmed to his subject his eyes 
would flash and his whole face and manner would 
express his moral indignation and wrath, as he 
gave emphatic and stirring utterance to his pro- 
test and hatred of wrong and crime in high places, 
often raising his powerful arm and striking with 
his clenched fist upon the desk with a force that 
made the boys start and look to see if anything 



48 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

was left but splinters. He appeared to be on such 
occasions a veritable Jove on some lofty Olympus 
thundering against the evils of his time. 

In those days it was my custom to make notes 
of some of the most pointed and striking phrases 
of Dr. Anderson's chapel talks, that I might have 
something that not only would serve to recall 
these impressive scenes of college days, but would 
be a source of inspiration in the years to come. 
Out of my several note-books I have made the fol- 
lowing selections, which may help to freshen the 
memories of some of the boys, and may awaken 
regard and esteem for the man on the part of those 
who never knew him. 

Gleanings from Chapel Talks 

Since the war young men have been eager 
to go into business. They even want to leave 
college to go into business to make money. 
Oliver Wendell Holmes was a good student 
and was not in a hurry to get into a profes- 
sion. His success afterward was largely due to 
the completeness of the foundation that he laid 
in his college course. More than ninety per cent 
of the men who go into business fail. There are 
great risks in business. A young man might 
better start in a profession with a small income 
and work up. He will not have a chance to make 
a great fortune, but he will have less risk to 
run and a better prospect for a useful, contented 
life. Success in life depends upon good character, 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 49 

good common sense and a disposition to work. 
A fresh and attractive way of putting things is 
needed in the pulpit, above everything else. It 
is better for the young minister to call the church 
than for the church to call him. 

I consider good hand-writing a Christian duty. 
I often get a letter that I can hardly decipher. I 
look at it from one position and then from another 
and still another, and try to read it. Such a writer 
steals my time. He is just as guilty as if he 
stole my money. Men have no business to be bad 
writers. You let yourself all out in a letter. You 
show your culture in a great many ways. A letter 
or an essay lets a flood of light right through you ; 
they let one into you in a wonderful manner. 

A man sees what he has eyes to see. A man 
goes all the way to Rome to see the Pantheon. 
When he gets there he is surprised to see nothing 
but a building. He sees nothing in it, for it calls 
up nothing to him, none of its history, none of its 
associations, none of the ideas connected with it. 
An uneducated man asked my friend while pass- 
ing along the streets of Rome who Pont. Max was, 
supposing it stood for a man's name and not 
knowing that it was an abbreviation for Pontifex 
Maximus. 

Gentlemen, it will be harder for you to get your 
intellectual kites up in your time than it was for 
me. You will have greater competition. 

A man cannot doubt his own existence. If he 
does, he has no pou sto. Neither can a man prove 
his own existence. He cannot go back of those 



50 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

fundamental principles that underlie the belief in 
any existence. 

Goethe attracts me less than any of the modern 
poets. He is a man of transcendent genius, but 
a passage in Scripture applies to him more than 
to any other, — earthly, sensual, devilish. Byron's 
poems are a relief compared with those of Goethe. 
Byron carries the antidote along with the disease. 
Shelley was an honest infidel, if there is such a 
thing, and many of his poems give good lessons ; 
but Goethe is wholly bad, nothing redeems him, 
in my estimation. He dwelt apart from his peo- 
ple, caring little for them. He had no patriotism, 
no sympathy with his own age or time. He held 
the same relation to the people and conditions of 
his time that Erasmus held to the Eeformation, — 
that it was well enough so long as it did not in- 
terfere with his affairs. 

Men get into grooves, or into such habits of 
mind that they become almost automatic. For ex- 
ample, a man in the habit of swearing, or drink- 
ing, or gambling, has a tendency to become more 
and more under the influence of the habit. "He 
that commits sin is the servant of sin." This is 
the most fearful thing about sinning at all. And 
then a man's habits are generally transmitted to 
his children, habits of mind and of body. One of 
the most distressing things in my experience is to 
have to do with a young man so weighted in the 
race of life by the sins of his father that he 
has no chance with other men. Every man is 
conscious of some inherited weakness. We must 
keep constant watch over ourselves, over these 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 51 

evil tendencies, this drift or current which takes 
us right off our feet. 

There is this difference in men; some control 
their ideas, and some are controlled by their ideas. 
John Brown was at first right in his convictions 
and notions, but after the death of his sons he 
began to be unsettled and to be controlled by his 
ideas. A man who devotes his whole thought to 
inventing or discovering something new, after a 
while gets so he can see things only one way, and 
is entirely controlled by his ideas. A man who 
rides a hobby is a man who is controlled by ideas. 
It is a good thing to have some hobbies, if you 
will only ride them at different times. A man 
might as well be possessed with the devil as to 
be possessed with one idea. A man's mind is 
often upset by religion, politics, or some subject 
to which he has given his mind entirely, and 
thinks a great deal about it. If you go into an 
insane asylum and inquire into the history of the 
various cases, you will find that nine out of ten 
of the inmates have been brought to their sad 
condition by giving their entire attention to one 
idea and thinking about it all the time. If you are 
going into a profession, take up some subject 
alongside your vocation. By this means you will 
keep your mind healthy. A man grows faster 
by adopting this method. Reading one subject all 
the time is like eating one kind of food all the 
time. You cannot do it. A man with a general 
education has this advantage, that he has tastes 
for different subjects. 

A man should have principles or rules by which 



5£ MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

he should guide his life, but you ought to see to 
it that they are principles. I do not know of a word 
that is used to mean so many things and in so 
many senses as this. A man may have certain 
crotchets or whims about things and say, "I can- 
not do so and so from principle,' ' or "I have 
principles against such and such actions,' ' or, "I 
do not see how you can violate your principles 
so." By general principles many wrong actions 
may be justified in the begging of the question, 
or in trying to interpret them in a wrong way. 

When it is advertised that Mr. Jones is going 
to play the organ, and Miss Smith is going to 
sing, and nothing is said about the minister who 
is to preach, it shows that the sermon is only the 
bitter part of the pill, and the other the sugar 
coating to make it go down easily. People 
make a great cry about eloquent men, eloquent 
preachers, but the time has passed when men 
will be listened to on account of their eloquence. 
In Parliament they hoot a man down who merely 
plays with adjectives. In the House of Repre- 
sentatives they will not let a man make a long 
speech, but say "Give a page to print," and he 
sends it off to the printer, who says that he said 
so and so when he did not say a word of it. 

Religion is like heat; it does not descend very 
well, but rises readily and easily. If you will 
get hold of the lower classes and convert them 
you will get the upper classes. But if you aim 
to get hold of the higher classes only you will 
hardly ever get hold of the lower classes. This 
is illustrated by the Stoic religion of Rome and 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 53 

Greece. The reason why the Reformation took 
such a hold upon all the country was because it 
took hold of the common people and after- 
ward permeated all classes, even the high and 
aristocratic. 

I know of nothing that will so upset a religious 
teacher or preacher as great flattery or adula- 
tion, especially if the teacher or preacher is a 
young man. I think this was what weakened the 
power of Napoleon. He got so that he trusted 
in his star. He thought he could do anything. 
Horace Greeley is another excellent example. He 
was surrounded with a body of flatterers, who 
tried to use him and did use him, and when he 
awoke at the close of his life to the way he had 
been flattered and fooled by his colleagues, it had 
a terrible effect upon his mind. 

Everything in nature seems to work by a sort 
of rhythmical law. I do not know that it is an 
improper generalization to say that men of genius 
show themselves at certain periods in the history 
of the world. For example, the time of Raphael 
was a period when there were a great many nota- 
ble men. This was followed by a period in which 
there were no very great men. This was fol- 
lowed by another period of men of great intelli- 
gence. Genius is the power to work faster and 
better than other men, or as Webster puts it, 
"Genius is power to work." We are awed when 
we think of the amount of work that Michael 
Angelo and Raphael did. I cannot account for 
this amount of work except by supposing that 
they drew the pictures and painted the most dim- 



54 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

cult parts and left the other parts for the pupils 
to fill up. This is illustrated in literature. Mr. 
Gay and William Cullen Bryant are about to 
publish a history of the United States. Now Mr. 
Gay does all the work, while Mr. Bryant criticises 
and gives it his approval. 

There is a sort of notion that men are not appre- 
ciated in their own time. Milton and Dante are 
cited as examples. But this is hardly true. 
Milton was a republican and would not dance at- 
tendance to the Court, so he was put down as 
much as possible. Milton and Dante made their 
impression on their own age. A man must im- 
press himself upon his own age and time if he 
would have a posthumous reputation. Arnold 
said: "I wish to make an impression upon my 
own age and time," little thinking that he was 
doing the very thing to make him popular in 
after time. Raphael's elements of popularity 
were kindness of heart, no envious disposition, 
and symmetry of power. He was not the greatest 
anatomist of his time, nor was he the most power- 
ful in emphasis of expression; Michael Angelo 
shows the greater power of expression. His pic- 
tures make one think that he said: "I will paint 
a picture that shows the greatest power of expres- 
sion ever painted." Raphael combined better 
than any other painter all the elements that make 
a good picture. When you first look upon one of 
Raphael's pictures you have to say, if you are 
honest, that you are disappointed. This is not 
much of a picture. As you return to it, however, 
you find that it grows upon you, and every time 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 55 

you see it you think it better. There is a class 
of men who after a few years can be easily com- 
passed or exhausted. You go around one of that 
class ; you find him unchanging, always repeating 
himself. Others are always changing, always new, 
always growing. You can never exhaust them. 

In the times of Erasmus a man might go over 
the greater part of the literature then in exis- 
tence, especially the good literature. But we can- 
not do it now. It is useless to try to do it. It is 
not necessary, for books are made now so that 
we can get at them much easier; labor-saving 
machines you may call them. All should know 
what they are, or where you can get them. Dic- 
tionaries of law, of oratory, of science, are such 
books. Besides, there are cyclopedias which are 
indispensable. A man taking up a profession 
finds it necessary to know something of the his- 
tory of the noted men in his profession. They 
are landmarks by which he can get his bearing. 
In no other way can he learn his position, or 
know what has been done by men for his profes- 
sion. Get this burnt into you: Look up men of 
note. 

Every man has his weak points. We all have a 
screw loose somewhere, and if we cannot find it, 
others will. Agassiz, the greatest naturalist of 
America, left much of his work in an unsatisfac- 
tory condition, and many of his theories will be 
overthrown. So with Cuvier, so with Owen, so 
with men in every profession. The nearer we 
get to them the more we see their faults and 
failings. Every man will cease to grow if he 



56 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

ceases to work. Some men have their eyes in the 
back of their head and live in the past. They 
relate experiences and talk only of times gone by. 

Remember the Scotch proverb: "He who sups 
with the devil must have a long spoon.' ' You 
cannot touch tar without being denied. You can- 
not wrestle with a coal-heaver without getting 
smutty. You cannot associate with bad men with- 
out being affected by it. Be careful about your 
associates. Be careful with whom you become in- 
timate. So universally evident has it become that 
' ' a man is known by the company he keeps ' ' that 
it has passed into a proverb "noscitur associis." 
This is not strictly true, but it is true enough to 
become almost a universal rule. The sad thing 
about the Beecher trial is that Mr. Beecher ever 
allowed himself to be intimate with men who had 
no regard for anything but themselves, and who 
when they found they were going to be reviled or 
overthrown were willing to drag other men down 
with them. If such men have been kind to one, 
or done one any favor, so much harder do they 
make it for him. They have something to pry 
upon then, and something on which to get a good 
ground for making a case against them. 

Be sure to put your points clear and sharp so 
that anyone can understand them. But you run 
a risk if you do it. You run a great risk. If you 
put a thing clearly, so that anyone can under- 
stand it, so that an uneducated man can see it 
readily, so that it coincides exactly with what he 
thought, he will say: "That is all right. That 
is just my thought.' ' "Them's my sentiments." 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 57 

But if you put your points in rather a blind way, 
they will say: "How smart our minister is! 
How fine a student !" I remember once that a 
man said: "Our pastor ought to preach about 
the metaphysics of religion all the time; he is 
so smart, so learned; he knows so much about 
such great things.' ' I knew the man, and knew 
that he knew nothing about that subject. You 
may look at a mud-puddle by the side of the road, 
and it may look to be two thousand feet deep for 
all you know. Wayland used to say of his brother 
John, "He dives deep enough, but he always 
comes up muddy.' ' 

A man is not to be blamed for changing his 
views on minute points. A man who does not 
change his views must be either omniscient, or a 
fool. A man who does not change gives evidence 
thereby that he has stopped growing. You must 
make a distinction, however, between a man who 
changes his views for good reasons and one who 
floats about, who has no basis or foundation. 
John Henry Newman held implicitly what it took 
a long time to show explicitly. Once I used to 
look upon a man who took the position of Keble 
as dishonest, but since I have read more I look 
upon a man of this kind with more leniency. Gen- 
erally men do not change in fundamental princi- 
ples, but they will change in details as they grow. 
A man may write a work or works in different 
years, but at sixty the same statement will be 
greatly modified from what it was at thirty. Every 
man in his own experience can look back to his 
crude, coarse statements or ideas. Man's educa- 



58 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

tion is better now, so far as it affects details. 
Fundamental principles are the same. Funda- 
mentals may crop out under new names, but they 
remain about the same. To some extent, every 
man stands on the shoulders of those that have 
gone before him. 

The idea of reducing the body to zero, of 
fasting, of shutting one 's self out from the world, 
of wearing poor clothes and sleeping a few hours 
at night, is a heathen idea. It is not Christian at 
all. The Christian idea is not to destroy the body, 
but to sanctify it and make it holy. We speak 
sometimes of this asceticism as belonging to the 
IRoman Church. It belongs to human nature. It 
cropped out among the Jews. It shows itself 
among the Mohammedans, and every Christian 
sect has had some dash of it. John Wesley had 
pome of it, but he was wise enough to keep it 
under. The Society of Friends is another example 
of the same thing. We think that we should be 
good Christians if we had no body : that we would 
not eat too much, nor be so vain or lustful, if we 
had no body. Paul's idea was to keep the body 
under by controlling, not by destroying it. God 
did not make a mistake in making the body; and 
we must not make a mistake in failing to govern it. 

The influence of a name is wonderful. Call a 
dog "mad," and he will be stoned to death. Be 
careful how you use names, and how you are 
controlled by them. 

Nations that are strong and powerful will 
always absorb and overlap weak ones, just as air 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 59 

will rush into a vacuum. Men, too, who are strong 
intellectually will seem to over-reach other men, 
or over-top them. Nineteen men out of every 
twenty are waiting to be led, waiting to have 
someone tell them what to do., It is a moral duty 
for a man to be strong; to go up to that height 
where men are scarce. There is always room at 
the top for strong men. It is always a moral 
duty to be courageous, to go forward. 

Build up a reputation and stay by it. A country 
minister, having a little reputation, thinks he is 
able to take a higher place and sets out for New 
York. He cannot take his reputation with him. 
He cannot box it up in his trunk. It evaporates. 
After he has been in the city a while, he finds 
that he has lost it all. Make it a rule to stay 
where you are. If you leave, do not let anyone 
dislodge you. Fight, fight! Eemember the fable 
of "The Fox and the Flies.' ' A fox was in a 
swamp, so entangled that he could not move. 
Flies came and sucked out half his bood. A 
swallow flying by says: "I will eat these flies.' ' 
"No," said Mr. Fox, "If you eat these flies who 
are full of blood, others will come and take away 
all the blood I have." Your present cares and 
trials may be annoying, but others in another 
place will be just as hard to bear. 

It is hard work for men to change or to do 
differently from what they have been accustomed 
to do. A teacher after forty or fifty years teaches 
just as he did at the beginning. He cannot change. 
So men in business follow the way they were 
taught when they entered upon their business 



60 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

career. A new idea or thought on this account is 
accepted slowly. The followers of Aristotle had 
got into a rut, and did not want to change. Now- 
a-days lawyers object to a new code, and ministers 
to any new system. An English railway con- 
tractor in Hindustan thought he would teach the 
natives the use of the wheelbarrow in making a 
railway. He had a lot of wheelbarrows shipped 
out there, and showed the men how to use them. 
After practicing a while with them he went away. 
When he returned he found them using them, but 
filling them with dirt and then putting them on 
their heads and carrying them away and dumping 
them. They were accustomed to carrying dirt on 
their heads in baskets, and they could not change. 
Be careful, and do not get hide-bound and stiff, 
or form the habit of always looking back. Never 
say : the times are degenerating, the girls are not 
so pretty, the men not so good and earnest, the 
ladies not so educated. Do not have your eyes 
always in the back of your head. Also guard 
against the opposite tendency. Do not get the 
habit of always saying, "Everything is better 
than it used to be. ' ' The world is advancing, but 
it is a long way from perfection yet. 

People segregate Newton apart from all the 
rest of his age, and when the law of gravitation 
is mentioned, they instinctively think of Newton. 
But the fact is, he only happens to be the one by 
whom the law was finally arranged. Others had 
done as much as he toward discovering it. 

There is no question of the fact that there was 
a general diminution of the people of Europe on 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 61 

account of the French Revolution. All the strong, 
able-bodied men were required to fight battles, 
so that nobody was left at home but boys and 
old men and cripples. The next generation was 
weak and sickly, weak in mind, in body, and in 
every respect. This is true of every country in 
which there have been many wars. 

Some want to know what is the use of studying 
Latin and Greek. Those peoples all died long ago. 
What use are their languages now? What is the 
use of studying the history of medicine? Modern 
books are twice as good. Why spend so much 
time in studying up the processes of development, 
when the results can be so readily and easily 
obtained? Just for this reason, that the study of 
the processes of development by which men arrive 
at results are more profitable than the results. 
Take the history of the barometer, from Pascal 
down to Faraday. The results may be learned in 
a short time, but the different experiments these 
men performed and the processes by which they 
arrived at the result are vastly more important. 
The law against treason which is embodied in the 
Constitution is short and can be learned in a few 
minutes ; but in order to understand that law and 
why it was put in the Constitution instead of the 
law against stealing, involves the knowledge of 
English history and the feudal law. Men are all 
the time inventing and applying for patents, 
spending much time and painstaking labor, but 
when they visit the Patent Office they find in many 
cases that their ideas had been worked out long 



m MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

ago. This is a practical illustration of men work- 
ing, not knowing the history of any of the patents. 

One of the hardest things for us to understand 
as Protestants is, what sort of thoughts and ideas 
are in the minds of the Catholics when they wor- 
ship the saints and the Virgin Mary: What 
motives and feelings do they have? We cannot 
understand how the priests get hold of the people 
in such manner. We may say that Eomanism is 
baptized heathenism. The priests have gotten 
hold of the old mythology of the heathen and 
baptized it. Castor and Pollux have been ex- 
changed for St. Helena, and Venus has been ex- 
changed for Mary. 

I shall never feel right till I have thrashed a 
plumber. I have a moral indignation against the 
whole class, on account of the poor way they work. 
They ought to have their noses held over the 
mouth of a sewer until they have been impreg- 
nated with the gas and the fever has threatened 
them, so that they could see how they like it. 

The common prayer over the whole of Europe 
was, " Deliver us from the Turks, the devil, and 
comets. ,, The Turks were once strong, rich and 
powerful, but they became, on account of their 
riches, licentious and fast livers, and therefore 
weak and effeminate. Nobody would now think 
of getting anything uplifting from the Turks. 
They have no armies, no naval system. They 
became Just such men as are to be found on Fifth 
Avenue to-day. New York men who live between 
Paris and New York ; men who sleep daytimes and 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 63 

are up nights; who are pale, thin, sickly, with 
sunken chests and spare legs, running out in one 
generation. The servants in the kitchen come 
up and occupy the parlors which they furnished. 

At a dinner given in 1816, Commodore Decatur 
gave the following toast : ' * Our country, may she 
always be in the right, but our country, right or 
wrong/ ' This phrase had a large run, but it 
embodies a principle that is not right. If it 
means anything, it means that our interests and 
obligations to our societies, to our church, to our 
country, transcend our obligations to the ever- 
lasting distinction between right and wrong. It 
is on this account that evil comes out of being 
connected with a secret society, such as Masons 
or Odd Fellows, It is this that led most of the 
Southern States into the late war. The majority 
of the people were not in favor of secession, but 
for the sake of obligations to the South they were 
led to do wrong; to do what they did not de- 
sire to do. 

A bad habit will stick to a man like the shirt of 
Nessus to Hercules. A man's reputation in col- 
lege will stay by him in life. A man noted for 
being tricky in college will find that it will stay 
by him, and if he ever tries to get a place, peo- 
ple will be afraid of him, and will fear lest he 
play the same tricks upon them. The worst repu- 
tation a man can have is to be noted for being 
tricky, or having two faces under one hat, of liv- 
ing two lives. The hardest thing for a young 
man to learn is "to suffer wrong rather than to do 
wrong. ' ' A man as president of a bank, as presi- 



64 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

dent of an insurance company, or of any com- 
pany or organization, will do things that lie would 
no more do as a man than he would sever his 
right hand from his body. 

You cannot afford to be ignorant of foreign 
countries and peoples. The world has shrunk. It 
is not half so large as it used to be. Places are 
nearer to each other. It will be just as much a 
disgrace for you to be ignorant of China as for me 
to be ignorant of the Carolinas. 

Some think that an extempore speaker gets up 
and originates all his thoughts and ideas on the 
spur of the moment. This is all nonsense. He 
only draws upon his past knowledge, the convic- 
tion and views that he has settled before. He gets 
hold of one word and pulls it out, and by that 
another, and so on. They may come tail first, 
but they come if his mind is full. Tap an empty 
barrel, and nothing will come out of it; tap a 
barrel full of muddy water, and muddy water will 
run out of it. 

There is a good deal of philosophy in the 
phrase, " Go it while you are young. ' ' If you feel 
impressed with the idea of taking responsibilities, 
take them; or of writing a book, write it. Sir 
William Hamilton read all the time, but he never 
wrote like the schoolmaster in Longfellow's 
' i Kavanagh. ' ' 

A man says he is a pantheist; that he is only 
a particle here in the great world of being; only 
a drop in the ocean of life. He says, "I am noth- 
ing, I can do nothing, only as a part of the great 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 65 

plan. I have no personality.' ' Is it trne that 
yon who will and think have no individuality, no 
identity? Are yon, who say and do as yon please, 
a part of the to pan, and have no will of your 
own? In the very assertion that yon make, "I 
am a pantheist, ' ' yon deny that yon are a believer 
in that doctrine. The ego will show itself, no 
matter how yon fix it. I, a particle, run against 
another man, another particle, who is a pantheist, 
and knock him down. The contact of the particles 
is pretty severe indeed, and the pantheist thinks 
so, and he goes and has me locked up. If you 
steal his horse, he forgets his doctrine and says, 
' ' You are a dangerous man and ought to be taken 
care of." So it is with the idealist and the 
materialist. 

I gave the following rules to a young man who 
was going into the army as a captain, as abso- 
lutely essential for him to follow if he would com- 
mand and lead : 1. Show your men that you know 
more about the art of war than any one of them. 
2. Show your men that you are morally better 
than any one of them. 3. Show your men that 
you have more pluck than any one of them. 

All men who do good work in any field are re- 
spected wherever they are. The confused and 
wandering condition in which the people of 
Arabia and the surrounding country were, caused 
them, more than anything else, to accept Mahomet 
as a leader. They wanted a leader ; they even ad- 
vertised for one. It is a rule that a large portion 
of the world is waiting for someone to come to 
lead them. You need not be great or learned in 



66 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

order to lead. You have seen families where the 
woman was the acknowledged head ; others where 
a little child five years old was the one who led 
the others about. 

It is easy for a man to grow down like a cow's 
tail, but it is hard to develop upward. It is easy 
for a man to be idle; it is easy for a man to be 
sensual; it is easy for a man to go to the devil. 
The road is easy down hill ; it allures one on and 
we all have to exert our powers to the utmost to 
keep from going down. We need all the good out- 
side and inside influences possible to keep us from 
becoming as low as many about us. Men in the 
large cities who frequent saloons and all vile 
places are men who have got far down the hill. 
They have gotten so low in one generation, some- 
times in their own life-time. They are as low 
as the savages of any uncivilized country. Go 
into the poorhouse and penitentiary and ask the 
inmates there how it is that they came there, and 
they will say their ancestors were highly re- 
spectable people, intelligent, wealthy and re- 
ligious. They will never say that they are on 
the road up from lower grades of society, but 
are going down from higher grades of society. 
This is conclusive proof against those who argue 
that we are developing from the monkey. Men 
cannot develop up hill. All history shows this. 

There is probably more of the ancient world 
below the ground than there is above it. There 
are now three or four cities overlying each other 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 67 

in Rome, and as you go through the city you see 
the different cities cropping out, and as you read 
you see it too. 

A college can do a great deal for a man, but it 
cannot furnish him brains. 

There was never any question as to Dr. Ander- 
son's alert and keen interest in all public affairs. 
How wide and deep his interest was, his full and 
active life abundantly shows. When the heroic 
statue that now adorns the circle in front of 
Anderson Hall was ready for mounting, there was 
considerable question, because of Dr. Anderson's 
large outside activities, as to the most fitting place 
for its location — the campus, or the plaza in front 
of City Hall. Dr. Anderson's Americanism was 
of the patriotic type. He believed in American 
institutions and labored for their establishment 
and improvement. He made a careful study of 
all subjects engaging the thought and attention 
of the people and sought opportunities, if they 
did not come to him, of making his views known 
through the press, or by letters to prominent gov- 
ernment officials. He foresaw many of the prob- 
lems of this later day, growing out of the vast 
tides of immigration, the development of the 
untold resources of the West, the piling up of 
enormous fortunes, and the abuse of the fran- 
chise. His practical views appealed to the people. 
He was a man to tie to in any crisis. He was 



68 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

many-sided, broad-minded, and had a vision. He 
had large faith in the future of the country. He 
would have the men that are charged with the 
responsibilities of government and with directing 
the thought of the people see to it that our insti- 
tutions are so safeguarded, and our laws so 
framed and administered, as to promote the high- 
est political, educational and religious welfare of 
our growing Eepublic. 

In his church relations Dr. Anderson was a 
Baptist, both from training and conviction. He 
believed in the principles of the Baptists, yet for 
his time he had unusual sympathy and wide fel- 
lowship with those of other faiths. He was not 
so much interested in the theological side of re- 
ligion as he was in its practical workings. What 
a man was, meant more to him than what he pro- 
fessed to believe. He had a great sense of pride 
in what the Baptists as a body of Christians had 
done in shaping democratic ideas, and in develop- 
ing the principles that have been operative in 
the progress of the people. He believed that the 
great foundation truths for which Baptists stand 
have been dominant in our national life and are 
destined to control civilization in the future. 
While he was president of the University he and 
Mrs. Anderson were associated in membership 
with the Second Baptist church of Eochester, the 
services of which he attended with great regu- 
larity, including the weekly prayer meetings. He 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 69 

also showed his interest in denominational move- 
ments and growth by his presence at missionary 
conventions, educational conferences, and May 
Anniversaries, and by making addresses or tak- 
ing part in the discussions. He rendered a great 
service to his denomination, and in turn was 
honored by the denomination. He served as presi- 
dent of the Home Mission Society and for three 
years of the Missionary Union. He was, as he 
said, "a dyed-in-the-wool Baptist/' and he was 
never ashamed of his colors. 

Coincident with the commencement exercises of 
the class of '76, was the celebration of the 
twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the 
university. Instead of the usual address to the 
graduating class, Dr. Anderson gave an address 
of great impressiveness and power on the work 
and aim of the university. He made an earnest 
plea for a larger equipment and a more adequate 
endowment. The movement previously inaugu- 
rated had already produced tangible results in 
the Sibley Library building, which Mr. Sibley 
kindly put at the disposal of our class for our 
class-day exercises, a unique dedication for a 
building of this character. The anniversary was 
made the occasion of quickening enthusiasm in 
the effort to raise a quarter of a million dollars. 
Millionaires were not numerous in those days, and 
gifts of hundreds of thousands were almost un- 
heard of. Dr. Anderson realized that great cour- 



70 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

age and persistency would be required to make 
the undertaking a success; but lie was invincible 
in his purpose. 

While struggling with the problems connected 
with the raising of this endowment fund, he was 
urged to go to Chicago to save the university 
there, which had reached a crisis in its history. 
He spent the summer of 1877 in Maine, where he 
had such a serious illness that his friends would 
not have been surprised to have heard of his death 
at any time. He was, however, mercifully spared, 
but went South for the winter, his health not hav- 
ing been sufficiently restored for him to take up 
his college duties in the autumn, and he did not 
resume them until the following summer. The 
nervous strain involved in raising the endowment 
proved such a source of anxiety and so heavy a 
drag upon his energies that those who stood near- 
est to him were fearful of a physical and mental 
collapse, involving the giving up of his work 
altogether. With the assurance that the effort 
would eventuate in success, and especially after 
the completion of the task in 1881, his health 
materially improved, and his spirits became more 
buoyant and hopeful. 

But the continuous and unbroken strain had left 
its mark. Men returning to commencement spoke 
among themselves with bated breath of "how he 
had aged. ' ' His hair had whitened, his shoulders 
had become bent, and, most pathetic of all, he 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 71 

could only get about by the aid of two canes. It 
was impossible to believe that this was our 
" Grand Old Man" of only a few years before. 

"But I forgot, when by thy side, 
That thou could 'st mortal be." 

Dr. Anderson had the conviction that his work 
was nearly done, and was impelled to resign. But 
wiser and better counsels prevailed. He did, 
however, decline many outside calls, and made 
few public addresses. He came to the New York 
State Missionary Convention meetings at Rome, 
in October, 1884, in response to my invitation as 
secretary, and made one of his old-time, inspiring 
addresses in opening the discussion on the topic 
"Fifteen Years of Baptist History in the State 
of New York." This was his last appearance 
before the Baptists of the State. A year later he 
delivered a series of lectures before the students 
of Crozer Seminary, on "Ethical Science," at the 
close of which a reception was tendered to him 
and Mrs. Anderson by the Social Union of Phila- 
delphia, which was a notable and fitting testi- 
mony to the man and his work. This was his last 
public appearance before the Baptists of the 
country. 

Dr. Anderson had long listened to the persua- 
sion of his friends and the trustees of the 
university to remain in the presidency of the in- 
stitution. He determined now to do what he had 



72 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

strongly felt for some time it was his duty to do — 
to resign. His health was enfeebled, his lame- 
ness had increased, and Mrs. Anderson was very 
delicate and unable to bear the rigors of the 
Northern winter. Therefore in April, 1888, he 
presented his resignation to the Board of Trus- 
tees, which was accepted with sincere regret, and 
he closed his duties as president with the June 
commencement following. Gloom pervaded all 
the exercises, and the hearts of the older gradu- 
ates and friends of the University were very 
heavy. The alumni dinner was given over almost 
entirely to expressions of love and esteem for the 
retiring President on the part of the faculty and 
students and supporters of the college. Tributes 
were also paid to Mrs. Anderson for the quiet, 
graceful and cultured way she had supplemented 
the work of her husband and aided in all that 
pertained to the welfare of the college and stu- 
dents. Words of welcome and assurance of 
cooperation were also extended to Dr. David 
Jayne Hill, for ten years president of Bucknell 
University, whom Dr. Ajiderson had chosen as his 
successor. 

Dr. and Mrs. Anderson spent the winter in 
Florida, returning north for the summer. Free 
from all care, they both enjoyed a good measure 
of health. After a pleasant and happy season at 
Fairhaven, Vermont, they returned in October to 
Lake Helen, Florida, where they had spent the 



MARTIN BREWER ANDERSON 73 

preceding winter. Dr. Anderson had so much im- 
proved that he continued the work which he had 
begun in Vermont in the summer, of reviewing 
and preparing his printed addresses for the press. 
Before the year closed, digestive disturbances, 
from which he had formerly suffered at times, 
recurred, occasioning distress and great anxiety. 
After a period of relief, other and more severe 
attacks followed, running into February, cansing 
great apprehension. While watching by his bed- 
side, ministering as no other one could do, Mrs. 
Anderson contracted a cold that rapidly developed 
into pneumonia, which terminated fatally on 
February 22, 1890. "When the distressing word 
was brought to the sick, enfeebled husband, he 
was apparently stunned, for he did not manifest 
any emotion, nor could he suffer any on the part 
of those who ministered to him. He made all the 
arrangements for his wife's funeral, selecting the 
hymns and giving attention even to the minutest 
details. But the greatly weakened and emaciated 
body could not long endure under the crushing 
load of silent and suppressed sorrow. He failed 
rapidly, and four days after the death of his 
wife, on February 26th, he yielded up his spirit 
to Him who had created him. Together Dr. and 
Mrs. Anderson were borne back to Rochester, 
their cherished home, and to a host of loving 
friends. The caskets were taken to Anderson 
Hall, where they stood for two days, amid scenes 



74 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

full of tender associations and memories. The 
double funeral services were held in the Second 
Baptist church, with which they had been identi- 
fied for nearly forty years, and they were laid 
peacefully to rest in Mt. Hope cemetery. 

"Nor is this all: for in the lives of those 
For whom with patient love he wrought 
He will live on inspiring to high thought, 
To noble deeds and sweet unselfishness; 
Memories of him will comfort in distress 
And feelings will surge up which words can 

ne'er repress, 
Yes, even in their children's children's lives 
Some trace of him will be that still survives." 



II 

EDWARD BRIGHT 

TWO reasons may be given for bringing to 
your attention at this time an appreciative 
sketch of Dr. Bright. First, he was presi- 
dent of the New York State Missionary Conven- 
tion for ten years, from 1874 to 1884. He reor- 
ganized the Convention and made it an effective 
missionary agency for fostering and sustaining 
small and dependent churches, and for bringing 
the unchurched and indifferent under the power 
of the gospel. Second, he was editor of The Ex- 
aminer for thirty-eight years, rendering an in- 
calculable service not only to the Baptists of this 
Empire State, but to the whole country. Presi- 
dent Strong, for so many years the head of 
Rochester Theological Seminary, has paid Dr. 
Bright this high tribute : " He unified the Baptists 
of America. ,, Contemporaneous with William 
Hayes Ward, of The Independent, Henry M. 
Field, of The Evangelist, and Samuel Irenaeus 
l^rime, of The New York Observer, probably no 
one of that notable group held a more undisputed 
position than Edward Bright, 

t ' 75 , 



76 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

My personal acquaintance with Dr. Bright goes 
back to the autumn of 1876, a few weeks after my 
enrollment as a student in Union Theological 
Seminary, in New York. Landing at the foot of 
Barclay Street early on a September morning 
and not being expected to report at the Seminary, 
located then at 9 University Place, before 9 
o'clock, it seemed that the best way to while "the 
silent time away" would be to stroll leisurely up 
Broadway. No more interesting panorama of 
New York life could be had than was afforded at 
that time by a walk up this great thoroughfare. 

In the throng of keen, eager faces not one 
appeared that I had ever seen before, forcing 
home upon me the truth of the saying : One is not 
more alone in a wood than in the heart of a great 
city. Eyeing intently the never-ending stream 
of men and women hurrying and pushing by, the 
torturing thought flashed over me: "Here you 
are alone in New York and you do not know a 
soul." Hesitating for a moment and then look- 
ing eagerly about as if those nearest to me must 
know of my sudden feeling of strangeness and 
loneliness, I gathered myself together instantly 
and quickened my pace uptown. 

Nearing the old New York Hotel, a landmark 
widely known in those days, what was my sur- 
prise to see in the never-ending stream of people 
the familiar face of Henry C. Vedder, whom I 
had known as a student in Rochester Theological 
Seminary, when I was in college. On his gradua- 



EDWARD BRIGHT 77 

tion lie had come to New York to join the editorial 
staff of The Examiner and Chronicle. Our greet- 
ing was like that of long-time friends. He in- 
quired as to my errand to the city; asked me to 
call on him some evening, and to come down to 
The Examiner office some afternoon, when he 
would introduce me to Dr. Bright. With lighter 
step I hastened on to the Seminary. 

Some weeks later after classroom work had 
settled into a routine, and the sense of strange- 
ness had given place to a home feeling, I set out 
for a call at the Examiner office. In those days 
The Examiner and Chronicle was located at 38 
Park Row, on the second floor of the Times Build- 
ing, a central position in what was generally 
known as "Newspaper Row," commanding a fine 
view of City Hall Park. After a short chat in a 
subdued tone with Mr. Vedder, for the presence 
of a dominating personality, enjoining quiet and 
close attention to duty pervaded the office, he con- 
ducted me into what was known as the " private 
sanctum' ' and introduced me to Dr. Bright. 

I had known from boyhood of Dr. Bright 
through his paper which had come as a weekly 
visitor into our home. I had seen him at the Uni- 
versity of Rochester on the occasions of the meet- 
ings of the Board of Trustees of which he after- 
wards became President, and had heard him speak 
at the alumni dinners. He was then well past 
three score years, and had probably attained the 
full measure of his power and influence as a 



78 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

journalist. He was at that time unquestionably 
one of the most conspicuous figures in Baptist 
denominational life. The impression I had 
gained, however, somewhat vague, yet shared by 
many at that time, was that he was unapproach- 
able, austere, autocratic, somewhat brusque and 
quite taciturn. My feeling in consequence was 
that of quiet observation and something of per- 
turbation as I stood face to face with him in 
the sanctity of his own private office. 

His greeting was cordial, his manner affable 
and his interest fraternal. He inquired about the 
Union Seminary, spoke of his admiration for 
Henry M. Sanders, a recent graduate, and asked 
on my turning to leave, if in my visits to churches 
to hear the different Baptist pastors, I would 
make a news item of anything that might be of 
general interest for the paper. More hung on 
that brief interview than was dreamed of by either 
of us at the time. As a small stone may change 
the current of a stream, so looking back over the 
lapse of years, it is not too much to say that in 
those few moments were wrapped up the in- 
fluences that had much to do in shaping the course 
of my life. 

Some weeks later Dr. Bright sent for me. On 
reaching the office he said: "Dr. William E. 
Williams, the pastor of the Amity church, New 
York, is to deliver a course of lectures on Baptist 
history, and I would like to have you report them 
for The Examiner, the name he always used in 



EDWARD BRIGHT 79 

speaking of his paper. The acceptableness of the 
payment for this first newspaper work to a 
seminary student can better be imagined than 
described. 

The following spring Dr. Bright asked me to 
accompany him to Cleveland, Ohio, to make a re- 
port for the paper of what was generally spoken 
of as the "May Meetings." In June he sent me 
to Hamilton, N. Y., to write up the commencement 
exercises of Madison, now Colgate University. 
In October, at his request, I went to Binghamton, 
N. Y., to report the meetings of the State Mission- 
ary Convention, of which he was president, and a 
year later to Rochester, N. Y., to make a report of 
the Convention meetings in that city. During 
this period our relations were marked by great 
civility and friendliness, but they had in them 
nothing that could be regarded as of a close and 
intimate character. 

When in the summer of 1879, after my gradua- 
tion, opportunities came for supplying churches 
seeking a pastor, he expressed deep interest when- 
ever any serious consideration was given to the 
question of settlement. Finally when it became 
necessary to render a decision, without wishing to 
seem to influence me unduly, he suggested that I 
wait until something else opened. Seeing my re- 
luctance at following such a course, he said : "If 
you are free in October, the State Missionary 
Convention may want you for Corresponding 
Secretary." 



80 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

The thought of any position outside a pastor- 
ate had never occurred to me. I questioned seri- 
ously the wisdom of giving consideration to any- 
thing in place of my long-cherished plans, and 
had grave doubts about the Convention choosing 
a young, untried man for so responsible a posi- 
tion. In my uncertainty I determined in myself to 
leave this question, as many former ones, — to the 
leadings of Providence. When the office of sec- 
retary of the New York State Missionary Conven- 
tion came to me all unsought at the Rochester 
meeting, my acceptance was largely due to the 
convincing reasons presented by Dr. Bright, and 
immediately after the close of the Convention I 
entered upon my secretarial duties. 

Dr. Bright had been president of the State Con- 
vention for five years. A part of that time he had 
also acted as treasurer. He was re-elected in 
succession for five more years, making a round 
decade in all. He positively declined thereafter 
re-election. WTiile president he was in a large 
sense the Convention. The secretary's desk was 
in the office of The Examiner, and all the details 
of the work came under Dr. Bright 's personal in- 
spection and supervision. During the five years 
of my secretaryship under Dr. Bright 's admin- 
istration we were brought into close personal re- 
lationship. I saw him daily when my duties did 
not take me out of town. It was my privilege and 
pleasure to be a frequent guest at his home, both 
at Yonkers and in the city. I played croquet with 



EDWARD BRIGHT 81 

him, a game that he greatly enjoyed, accompanied 
him to college and convention gatherings, was 
associated with him in church relationship, heard 
from his own lips the story of many eventful ex- 
periences in his remarkable life, and shared in 
an nnnsual degree his confidence and his friend- 
ship. In a burst of fraternal, fatherly feeling he 
said to me, after an evening spent with him in his 
parlor, "I have never spoken so frankly to any 
other young man, nor taken one so fully into my 
confidence." When he ceased to be president my 
desk and all the records and books of the Society 
were removed to 116 Nassau Street. From daily 
intercourse our meetings thus became less and less 
frequent, and were more and more of a business 
character. After the financial crisis in 1884, in- 
volving serious differences among leading Bap- 
tists in the city, Dr. Bright withdrew from the 
Calvary church to become a member of the Fifth 
Avenue church, thereby severing many long estab- 
lished personal and church relations. 

Dr. Bright came of pure English stock, of the 
generation that boasted that England 

1 'never did, nor ever will 
Lie at the proud feet of a conqueror." 

He was the son of Edward and Winifred Bright, 
and probably the eldest of twelve children, five 
of whom died before reaching maturity. Very 
little is known of his early life. Dr. Bright never 



82 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

offended by talking about himself, least of all 
about bis antecedents and childhood. The essen- 
tial facts of his early life have a special interest 
in the form stated by himself in his brief auto- 
biography written on October 8, 1885, his seventy- 
seventh birthday: 

This is my birthday. I was born on this day of 
1808, in my father's farmhouse, near to Kington, 
a market town of Herefordshire, England. It was 
at Kington I went to school and Sunday school, 
my father and mother being members of a little 
Baptist church at that place. When I was eleven 
years old my father came to this country with all 
his family. I have found this a pleasant world to 
live in and my health is now so good that it seems 
like a dream that I should have seen so many 
birthdays. "Surely goodness and mercy have fol- 
lowed me all the days of my life." 

When the father migrated to America in 1819 
he found a temporary dwelling place in the old 
Eichardson homestead at Vernon, Oneida County, 
New York. Shortly afterward the family settled 
in Utica, a flourishing town in the Mohawk Valley. 
They were probably drawn to this region because 
of its being a Baptist center, as were the Scotch 
Covenanters to Galway in Saratoga County. 

The boy Edward could not have had much 
schooling before coming to this country, and the 
only opportunities he had here were limited to the 
common school and to a short period at the Cort- 
land Academy at Homer. He made up largely 
for his own lack of early training by wide reading 



EDWARD BRIGHT 83 

and study. He was a careful student of the 
Bible, and knew English history and literature. 
Few had a wider knowledge of denominational 
affairs than did he. While at Homer he probably 
was brought under the ministry of " Elder " 
Alfred Bennett, who founded the Homer church 
in 1807, and remained pastor until 1832, — a year 
made notable for Baptists by the organization of 
the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Dr. 
Bright used to like to speak of the spiritual zeal 
and piety of this consecrated man of God, whom 
he esteemed as one of the most potent missionary 
forces in his time in New York State. No doubt 
he also formed the acquaintanceship of the sons, 
Cephas and Dolphus Bennett, with whom he came 
later in close personal relationship. He also 
probably became acquainted with Adeline Osborn, 
daughter of Deacon Osborn, to whom afterward 
he was joined in marriage on January 25, 1830. 

When he had attained the age of sixteen, cast- 
ing about for something to do, he determined to 
learn the printer's trade. While serving his ap- 
prenticeship in the office of the Utica Gazette he 
found his ambitions would not be satisfied short 
of some opening calling for the exercise of the 
business capacity which he knew he possessed. 
In the meantime Cephas and Dolphus Bennett had 
established a publishing house in Utica, having 
among other contracts that of printing The Bap- 
tist Register, of which Alexander M. Beebee was 
editor. In 1828, when Cephas Bennett felt im- 



84 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

pelled to give himself to foreign missionary work, 
and set sail for Bnrma, Edward Bright purchased 
his publishing interest. The business, enlarged 
by the addition of a book store, was continued 
under the name of Bennett & Bright. A His- 
torical Sketch of the Baptist Missionary Conven- 
tion of the State of New York, issued in 1837, 
bears the imprint of this publishing house. 

Prior to his embarking in the publishing busi- 
ness, Mr. Bright 's thoughts had been seriously 
turned to religion. After much "exercise of 
mind" he professed conversion during a power- 
ful religious awakening in Utica in 1825, and 
was baptized in the Mohawk River on August 7 
of that year by " Elder' ' James Clark, then pastor 
of the Broad Street church. Soon afterward he 
was promoted from the ranks of a pupil to that 
of Sunday school teacher, and then to superinten- 
dent. His efficiency and ability as superintendent 
were so generally recognized that his services 
were always in demand, even outside the bounds 
of his denomination. When the Broad Street 
church established in 1837 a mission in West 
Utica, young Bright was made superintendent of 
the Sunday school. Out of this mission school 
came the Bethel church, which was organized in 
Mr. Bright 's house on March 31st, 1838. Subse- 
quently this church exerted a wide influence under 
the name of the Bleecker Street church. It is now 
known as the Park church. 

Mr. Bright 's early interest in and love for the 



EDWARD BRIGHT 85 

Sunday school, and his deep conviction of the in- 
dispensable place the Sunday school held as "the 
nursery' ' of the church, continued with him to the 
end. His services were always at the disposal 
of the schools, as teacher or superintendent, in 
the churches with which he afterward became asso- 
ciated. When he moved to Yonkers he was active 
in founding the Nepperhan Avenue Sunday 
school, of which he was superintendent for many 
years, and which subsequently grew into one of 
the flourishing churches of that city. 

Shortly after the organization of the Bethel 
church, Eev. L. 0. Lovell became pastor, holding 
the position for one year and a half, until Janu- 
ary, 1840. Mr. Bright had been superintendent 
of the Sunday school; he had been one of the 
prime movers in the organization of the church; 
he had had considerable experience in conducting 
meetings and as a lay preacher, and in this 
emergency the church turned to him for leader- 
ship. After much prayerful consideration he felt 
that he could not disregard this providential in- 
dication to give himself to the gospel ministry. 
Because of the sacrifice involved in the change for 
his family, he hesitated about speaking to his wife 
of how deeply this new conviction had taken pos- 
session of him. Finally he summoned courage 
and said, "Adeline, I have something I want to 
confide in you. ' ' When he told her how the Spirit 
had been operating upon his mind, and that he 
felt he must give himself to preaching the gospel, 



86 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

said she, "Edward, I have been waiting for weeks 
for yon to tell me of this glad decision.' ' With 
joyous trnst he accepted the call of the Bethel 
chnrch, extended to him in April, 1840, and was 
ordained the following June 3, meanwhile retain- 
ing his interest in his business to insure the main- 
tenance of his family. Later convinced that he 
should give his whole time to his church, he sold 
out his interest in the publishing house to Charles 
C. Backus, the firm then becoming Bennett, 
Backus & Hawley. 

In the fall of 1841 he accepted the urgent call 
of the Homer church. There were no reasons why 
he should have been attracted away from his 
young church in Utica, after a year and a half of 
service, except those of the splendid traditions 
of the Homer church and the field it afforded for 
a wide and useful ministry. Homer, to be sure, 
had been the early home of Mrs. Bright, to whom 
early associations were tender and precious. He 
must also have had delightful memories of the 
beautiful New England-like town from his school 
days at the old academy. It is my suspicion, how- 
ever, that Elder Bennett had a great deal more 
to do in bringing the church he had served so 
long and the young Utica Pastor together than 
any other influence. The Homer pastorate was 
entered upon the first Sunday in December, 1841. 
' ' Elder' ' Bright was soon recognized as a man of 
power, and was in demand as a supply of some of 
the more prominent pulpits and as a speaker at 



EDWARD BRIGHT 87 

missionary and educational gatherings. With a 
church, substantial, responsive, spiritually alive 
and full of missionary zeal, in the midst of the 
picturesque and peaceful valleys of central New 
York, he must have felt that he had an almost 
ideal pastorate. 

The middle of the last century was a period of 
great denominational interest and activity. The 
news of the baptism of Mr. and Mrs. Adoniram 
Judson, which reached America in February, 
1813, had aroused the Baptists to a new sense of 
their responsibility for foreign missions. At a 
meeting held in Philadelphia, May 18, 1814, in 
order to meet this new situation was organized 
the General Convention of the Baptist denomina- 
tion in the United States for Foreign Missions. 
This Society came to be known as the General 
Convention, or popularly as the Triennial Con- 
vention, its meetings being held once in three 
years. In the early 40 's serious agitation and 
division arose in the General Convention over 
the slavery question, which finally culminated in 
their organizing at Augusta, May 3, 1845, the 
Southern Baptist Convention. On the ensuing 
November 19 a special meeting of the General 
Convention was held in New York, when a new 
constitution was adopted and the name was 
changed to "The American Baptist Missionary 
Union." The board of managers at a meeting 
held May 22, 1846, elected Rev. Solomon Peck, 
D.D., corresponding secretary, and Rev. Edward 



88 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

Bright assistant corresponding secretary. Again 
the influence of "Elder" Bennett was probably 
effective in the selection of the Homer pastor for 
this highly responsible post, for his word had 
great weight with the board, because of Ms four- 
teen years of efficient service as district secretary 
of the foreign mission society. A year later the 
work of administration was divided into home 
and foreign departments, and Dr. Peck was 
elected foreign secretary, and Rev. Edward 
Bright home secretary. "Elder" Bright had 
been pastor at Homer four years and a half when 
elected to the secretaryship in Boston. The two 
short pastorates at Utica and Homer completed 
his active labors in the ministry. 

To Secretary Bright was assigned the duty of 
providing the munitions at home for the mainte- 
nance of the men on the firing line abroad. His 
early business training, his organizing capacity, 
his recognized qualifications for leadership, 
coupled with his missionary interest and zeal, 
were soon so strikingly manifest as to silence all 
criticism and to awaken enthusiasm among the in- 
different. Those were days of change and transi- 
tion. They were days when the Northern Bap- 
tists were awaking to consciousness, days when 
there was a demand for a broader vision and for 
a more exalted endeavor. Secretary Bright was 
not a spectator, but an integral factor in the 
movement of those stirring days, and to him was 
given the credit of shaping the missionary 



EDWARD BRIGHT 89 

policy on the home field. In recognition of his 
efficient services the University of Rochester in 
1851 conferred upon him the degree of D.D. 

Two events will always make his secretaryship 
notable: his earnest plea on behalf of the "Lone 
Star" mission, closing the debate on the qnestion 
of abandoning the Telegn field and determining 
the Union to continne and reinforce the "Lone 
Star" station, and his persistent defense of the 
depntation sent ont by the board to inspect the 
mission fields and make snch changes as they 
should judge to be for the best interests of the 
work. Although the authority granted trans- 
cended his advocacy in the board of sending the 
deputation to inquire and report, he defended the 
policy of his colleague, Dr. Peck, and repelled the 
attacks made on him by friends at home and 
missionaries on the field. The controversy waged 
for some months, and the criticism of the attitude 
of the home secretary became so caustic that Dr. 
Bright felt that he could not in justice longer 
retain the position. He sent his letter of resigna- 
tion to the board of managers on March 10, 1855. 
Although the board requested him to reconsider 
his action, he let it be known that his decision was 
irrevocable, and he terminated his nine years of 
labor as secretary with the close of the Society's 
fiscal year, the May ensuing. 

While Dr. Bright was home secretary, in addi- 
tion to his administrative duties, he was largely 
responsible for the publications of the Society. 



90 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

In the publishing of the Missionary Magazine and 
Macedonian he found that the early knowledge of 
printing, acquired back in Utica, was of in- 
estimable value, and in his editorial duties he 
discovered the gifts that led him into religious 
journalism, his great life work. He also formed 
a wide acquaintance among the churches and 
pastors in all parts of the country, and among the 
missionaries, home and foreign, which proved a 
valuable asset in after years. Between him and 
Dr. Adoniram Judson there was a tender, fra- 
ternal feeling growing out of their long and 
intimate relationship. So highly did Dr. Judson 
esteem Dr. Bright 's business capacity that he 
made him his executor and probably gave to his 
youngest son the name of "Edward" as a token 
of appreciation of the many kindnesses of his 
long-time friend. 

On terminating his secretarial duties in Boston, 
Dr. Bright came to jNew York, finding a door 
ready to open almost without his knocking. Some 
time previously Andrew Ten Brook had pur- 
chased The Baptist Register, and removing it 
from Utica had consolidated it with The New 
York Recorder, under the name of The Recorder 
and Register, Dr. Sewell S. Cutting, of the 
Recorder, continuing as editor. In 1850 Pro- 
fessor Martin B. Anderson came to New York 
from Waterville, Maine, to take the editorial con- 
duct of the paper. In November of that year the 
University of Eochester was organized and 



EDWARD BRIGHT 91 

opened for students in Rochester. Two years 
later the presidency of the University of Roches- 
ter was offered to Dr. Anderson, who after care- 
ful consideration accepted it, entering upon his 
new duties with the opening of the fall term of 
1853, and leaving the responsible editorial posi- 
tion again vacant. Dr. Bright purchased an in- 
terest in the Recorder and Register and became 
associate editor and proprietor with Dr. Cutting. 
The first issue of the paper under the new man- 
agement appeared in June, 1855, under the name 
of The Examiner. The next year Dr. Cutting was 
chosen professor of rhetoric and history at the 
University of Rochester, and Dr. Bright became 
editor-in-chief of The Examiner. 

Eight years after coming to New York Dr. 
Bright experienced his first great family sorrow 
in the death of his estimable wife, who passed to 
her reward March 26, 1863. Besides the husband 
she left four children, one son and three 
daughters, just entering into young manhood and 
womanhood. When they began thinking of estab- 
lishing homes of their own, Dr. Bright took unto 
himself on October 18, 1865, as his second wife, 
Anna Leslie Reid, of Rochester, N. Y., a sister of 
the late James D. Reid, widely esteemed in 
Baptist circles in this country and in Scotland 
and England. Three children were born of this 
union, one son and two daughters. Mrs. Bright 
was a woman of great force of character, alert 
mind and engaging personality, and well qualified 



92 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

for leadership in social and religious endeavor. 
After a married life of twenty-f our years she was 
taken ill at their summer home on Round Island, 
in the St. Lawrence, where the family had spent 
many pleasant summers, and the end came on 
August 26, 1889. 

In 1865, the year of his second marriage, Dr. 
Bright effected a union of The Examiner with 
The Chronicle, the other Baptist paper published 
in New York, owned and edited by Dr. Pharcellus 
Church, and the combined paper thereafter was 
known as The Examiner and Chronicle. Dr. 
Bright never liked this name, and in the early 
80 's he dropped Chronicle, retaining only The Ex- 
aminer, the name chosen when he associated him- 
self with Dr. Cutting as editor. Dr. Bright con- 
tinued as editor and controlling stockholder of 
The Examiner until failing health in 1893 com- 
pelled him to relinquish the editorial management 
at the end of the long period of thirty-eight years. 
He passed away peacefully at his home in New 
York, 170 West Fifty-eighth Street, on May 17, 
1894, at the age of close to eighty-six years. 

Dr. Bright had been eminently successful as a 
publisher, as pastor and as secretary, but it was 
as editor that he attained his highest success and 
exerted his widest influence. In other spheres as 
Dr. Eddy was wont to say men outranked him, 
but in the world of religious journalism he was 
pre-eminent. He lifted his paper into the very 
front rank, put it on a firm financial basis, and 



EDWARD BRIGHT 93 

made it a powerful weapon to strike down opposi- 
tion and every form of evil. His ability was 
recognized in the field of secular journalism, and 
Editor Raymond, of the New York Times, en- 
deavored to induce him to become his associate 
in the conduct of his great daily. Under Dr. 
Bright 's strong hand The Examiner attained its 
largest circulation, and exerted the most potent 
influence of any Baptist paper. He possessed 
great versatility, an indomitable will and tireless 
energy. He threw the whole force of his powerful 
personality into the paper. Almost never absent 
from the office on account of sickness, he in reality 
lived and moved and had his being in The Ex- 
aminer. He believed that the paper was set for 
the defense of the distinguishing doctrines of the 
Baptist faith and the influence the paper had in 
stimulating Baptist growth — church, educational 
and missionary — cannot well be computed. In 
thousands of Baptists homes The Examiner was 
the main Sunday reading, and was regarded with 
almost the sacredness and authority of the Bible. 
Dr. Bright was The Examiner. He had in large 
measure what is known as "editorial instinct." 
He was the head of all the departments. He knew 
each day as much about the transactions in the 
business and subscription departments as did the 
treasurer or the subscription manager. Nothing 
of an editorial nature ever appeared in the paper 
that had not passed under his inspection and revi- 
sion. He had a style peculiarly his own — clear, 



94 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

cogent and compelling. He was forceful rather 
than fluent, dogmatic rather than descriptive, 
specific rather than speculative, practical rather 
than theoretical. He never "juggled" with words. 
No one ever had any trouble in understanding 
just what his meaning was. He wielded not only 
an able, but at times a very sharp pen, and men 
inside as well as outside the denomination were 
made to feel its sting. He had no patience with 
men who were ambitious to tear down " denomina- 
tional fences," and who had not honesty and cour- 
age enough to "walk out" of the Baptist brother- 
hood when they ceased to believe Baptist tenets. 
Although firm, almost adamantine in his attitude, 
those who were nearest to him knew that he al- 
ways had his reasons for any position he might 
take, and that he had an open mind if he could 
be shown a better and wiser way. He was ex- 
tremely sensitive to criticism, and set a high value 
upon the good-will of his brethren. Dr. Bright, 
however, had enough of the Englishman left in 
him to justify Emerson's phrase: "I find the 
Englishman to be he of all men who stands firmest 
in his shoes." It is a question whether at any 
other time a denominational paper conducted 
along editorial and business lines pursued by The 
Examiner could have attained a large success. 

Although Dr. Bright 's educational advantages 
were meager, he set a high value on education, 
and was actively interested in promoting it. He 
believed in an educated ministry, and encouraged 



EDWARD BRIGHT 95 

every effort on the part of young men contemplat- 
ing the ministry to secure seminary training. In 
1867 he became a member of the board of trustees 
of the University of Rochester. Five years later 
he was elected vice-president of the board, and in 
1885 was chosen president, which office he held 
until a year before his death. He was a steadfast 
supporter of President Martin B. Anderson, and 
believed that his "mark" on a boy was the best 
possible passport to higher attainments and use- 
ful service. In 1872 he was elected a trustee of 
Vassar College, serving in that capacity for 
seventeen years. 

Dr. Bright was always partial to young men. 
He sought their companionship; he turned to 
them for counsel and advice ; he took them into his 
confidence and cheerfully gave them encourage- 
ment and support, personally and through the 
paper. This kept him young and gave him a hope- 
ful and courageous outlook until the last. He had 
a deep and special interest in young men contem- 
plating entering the ministry, and was instrumen- 
tal in numberless cases in giving them a success- 
ful start in their life-work. He gave unsparingly 
of energy and attention to bringing churchless 
pastors and pastorless churches together. His 
judgment of men and churches was regarded as 
well nigh infallible, and pastors knew that a word 
from him would go a long way toward securing a 
pulpit. A marked instance of his kindness will 
never be forgotten. He was present at the coun- 



96 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

cil called for my ordination. The subject under 
consideration was "The Inspiration of the Scrip- 
tures/ ' The candidate had stated his views, and 
many questions had been asked, so framed ap- 
parently as to show the superior knowledge of 
the questioner, rather than to get at just what 
the candidate believed. Dr. Bright rose and im- 
pressively said: "Why pursue this questioning 
any further? We all know what Mr. Calvert's 
views are. His father is here present; why em- 
barrass him by questioning the son in this way 
any longer 1 ' ' The questioning from that moment 
ceased. 

Dr. Bright was pre-eminently a man of the peo- 
ple. He knew their attitude of mind, understood 
their feelings, and was always their fearless ad- 
vocate. He had a keen sense of their needs and 
knew how to strike a responsive cord in their 
hearts. He was at ease in any circle, but in the 
years of our intimate association the men of 
honest toil were those who had the first claim to 
his thoughtful consideration and his warmest sym- 
pathy. He loved 

' ' Good pleasant men, who loved him. ' ' 

This was one great secret of his power as an 
editor. Of him it could be said, as of his divine 
Master: "The common people heard him gladly.' ' 

In appearance Dr. Bright was the embodiment 
of a forcible character, a dominant personality. 



EDWARD BRIGHT 97 

His massive head, set firmly on his square, rugged 
shoulders, suggested the English statesman and 
Parliamentarian, John Bright. His erect car- 
riage, characteristic to the very last, and his pow- 
erful frame, gave the impression that he was a 
larger man than he actually was. He was a man 
who would arrest attention anywhere. One could 
not pass him on the street, or meet him in any 
gathering without the feeling that he was a man 
calculated to lead and to command. He was a 
man of heroic mould, his strong face looking out 
under a crown of heavy gray hair, made him a 
fine subject for an artist or sculptor. He belonged 
to a type rarely seen in any sphere of activity 
to-day. 

In manner he was serious, intense, deliberate 
and dignified. He had reached a point where he 
knew success had attended his efforts, yet he 
seemed always unduly watchful and concerned, 
rarely able to give himself to the joys and pas- 
times that give light and color to life. He was 
always gravely in earnest. He did not know how 
to "let go." Once having set his hand to the 
plow he knew nothing about looking back. His 
serious view of life, and his dogged persistency 
contributed, however, to the deep and lasting im- 
pression he made upon his times. 

Extremes seemed to meet in Dr. Bright. Ele- 
ments of strength and weakness, of self reliance 
and dependence, of tenderness and severity, were 
so mixed in him that he was often a puzzle to his 



98 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

best friends. As often in great men, however, 
these contradictory qualities did not nullify one 
another, but united to increase his force and effec- 
tiveness. He was an Abolitionist, yet opposed to 
all radical measures for breaking the chains of 
oppression and bondage. He was loyal and pa- 
triotic, yet in our day he would probably be 
classed as a "Pacifist." He was denounced as a 
bigot, yet few men w x ere broader in their sym- 
pathies, or more reasonable in their views and 
practices. He could strike sledge-ham m er blows, 
and yet a child could not be more gentle or more 
easily moved to tears. Those who knew Dr. 
Bright intimately through a long term of years, 
or sustained close personal relationship with him, 
could say with President Strong: "There was a 
tender side to Dr. Bright. He was affectionate in 
his home, and was often moved to tears by words 
spoken in appreciation of his work." His feel- 
ings seemed to get the mastery of him in times 
of great loss, sorrow or public calamity. When 
the shocking news of President Lincoln's assas- 
sination filled the country with gloom, he shut 
himself up in his private office and refused to see 
anyone the entire day, dull groans now and then 
issuing from his room as if he were overwhelmed 
with grief. 

Dr. Bright was notably domestic in all his tastes 
and interests. He loved his office, he loved his 
friends, he loved his church, but he loved his home 
most of all. And it was in the home and in the 



EDWARD BRIGHT 99 

home circle that he was at his best, most at ease, 
and most free from restraint. He loved little 
children. He had great pride in his own children. 
He loved to watch them at their play, and to tell 
of their pranks and their bright and amusing say- 
ings. In parting with friends, even though they 
were near his own age, he invariably said : ' ' Now, 
be good!" instead of " Good-bye," probably from 
his habit of speaking to his own children in ex- 
pression of his fatherly interest and love for them 
when he parted from them to go to his office in 
the morning. When his son Edward went to 
Europe, after his graduation from Columbia Col- 
lege, Dr. Bright would have a large map of the 
continent brought to him each day, and the places 
pointed out where Edward was to be, and the 
route by which he would travel to reach his next 
destination. On the platform of the State Con- 
vention, when the self-sacrificing love of the 
Savior was vividly portrayed, or the story of a 
refreshing revival in some of the churches was 
told, his eyes would moisten and his lips quiver 
with deep and soul-stirring emotion. 

Dr. Bright 's life spanned almost a century; a 
century of amazing change and advancement, the 
most notable of all the centuries. He grew with 
its growth, and his influence widened as the cen- 
tury developed. The greater portion of the second 
half of the century was spent before the public, 
open to their critical gaze, and subject to tempt- 
ing diverting influences. He stood like a giant 



100 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

oak against every wind that blew. He had his 
faults; every man has. He made mistakes; he 
never claimed perfection. He witnessed events 
of momentous import, and by his dominant or- 
ganizing and administrative ability he exerted a 
compelling influence in directing and shaping the 
rapid development of the religious, missionary 
and church activities of one of the great denom- 
inations of the country. He did a great and last- 
ing service. No history of the Baptists of America 
can be written without ascribing a large place to 
Dr. Bright in its counsels and its progress. 



Ill 

GEORGE HOWE BRIGHAM 

THE news of the passing into glory of 
" Elder' ' Brigham on September 5, 1910, 
came to me while abroad as a great shock. 
It was a source of deep regret that my absence 
in Europe made it impossible to comply with the 
request made by my dear friend before his last 
illness, and often repeated, that I should be 
present and join with others in the last service 
of affection and esteem. I feel that the apprecia- 
tion that would have found utterance then should 
have expression now in print. 

The thought that is uppermost in my mind now, 
and would have been, I am sure, at that time, is 
not so much the loss that has come to his friends, 
the church and the community — great as that is 
— nor that of the unceasing, devoted and blessed 
service which he rendered through the long years ; 
it is rather that of a righteous man entering into 
a righteous man's reward. 

As my mind has reverted to Mr. Brigham, in- 
cidents of the many years that I have known him, 
the frequent and enjoyable visits that we had to- 

101 



102 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

gether, and the saintly spirit that characterized 
his entire life have come vividly before me. I 
can only think of him as if the very chosen of 
God had walked among us, as one in whom the 
spirit of the Lord tabernacled, one who, because 
of his gentleness and Christliness, was like the 
disciple whom Jesus loved; for he lived in daily 
Communion and fellowship with his Lord. Like 
the Prophet of old he walked with God and is not, 
because God took him. He fought a good fight, 
he kept the faith, he finished his course and he 
has received his crown. 

George Howe Brigham was born in Eaton, 
Madison county, New York, eighty-seven years 
ago. He pursued his college studies at Colgate 
University, and his theological course at Hamil- 
ton Seminary, from which he was graduated in 
1853. In that same year he was ordained at Scipio 
to the work of the Gospel ministry. 

The public life of Mr. Brigham naturally di- 
vides itself into three periods. The first period 
extended from 1853 to 1873, and embraced his 
pastorate at Scipio, 1853 to 1856; Manlius, 1856- 
1859; Homer, 1859-1866, and Groton, 1869-1873. 
Then came his larger and wider ministry of 
twenty years, from 1873 to 1893, when he served 
as district secretary of the Missionary Union, or, 
as it is now known, the American Baptist Foreign 
Mission Society, with headquarters at Boston. 
This was followed by a third period of seventeen 
years, from 1893 to the end, a period of retire- 



GEORGE HOWE BRIGHAM 103 

ment from official duties and release from over- 
taxing burdens. 

This last period oould be called a period of in- 
activity only as in contrast with the years of 
greater activity and wider service that preceded 
it. During this last period he made his home for 
the most part in Cortland. During the time until 
his last illness he was daily seen upon the street. 
He went in and out of the homes ; he preached in 
all the churches ; he graced wedding festivals ; he 
ministered tenderly in bereavement; he partici- 
pated in temperance and political campaigns; he 
was much sought after as a speaker on all public 
occasions ; and he interested himself in everything 
that pertained to the social, educational and re- 
ligious advancement of the city. During all this 
time he was growing riper, richer and sweeter in 
spirit until he came to his grave in a full age, as 
a shock of corn cometh in its season. 

Mr. Brigham was eminently a preacher of the 
Gospel. Like poets preachers are born, not made. 
By his very constitution he seemed to have been 
ordained for his holy and exalted calling. He was 
singularly blessed in disposition and tempera- 
ment, as well as in birth and training. His broad 
and deep sympathy, coupled with his rare intellec- 
tual furnishings, combined to fit him in a peculiar 
way for the work of the Gospel ministry. I recall, 
as many of you do, his quiet and gentle manner, 
his slow and measured speech, his intense earnest- 
ness and soul-enkindling enthusiasm in his pulpit 



104 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

discourses as he warmed to his subject, and above 
all the consecrated bearing and almost holy at- 
mosphere that always attended the man. 

Mr. Brigham was an orator in the truest sense 
of the term. He was also possessed of the poetic 
temperament in large degree. Many in Cortland 
and elsewhere, no doubt, have in their homes in 
some treasured place, as I have, verses written 
by him in honor of anniversary occasions or to 
give comfort in the hours of sorrow. A keen wit 
and a fine sense of humor were also among his 
marked gifts, and often his public utterances, as 
well as his private conversations, were lightened 
with flashes which were keenly appreciated by his 
hearers. 

Yet no man felt his unfitness for the high call- 
ing of God more than he. When in his young 
manhood he yielded his heart to Christ, that sur- 
render was not made without a struggle extending 
through many anxious days and wakeful nights. 
Well do I recall how he told me with sad regret 
how much of suffering in body and mind it had 
cost him and how great was the burden of anxiety 
that he endured. But when the surrender was 
made and the victory won, it was for all time. 
From that hour Christ beeame the inspiration of 
his life, the theme of his conversation, the object 
of his adoration and the end of his endeavor. 

But his high place as a preacher was not se- 
cured and held to the neglect of his flock. On the 
contrary, he excelled as a pastor. It was this rare 



GEORGE HOWE BRIGHAM 105 

combination that gave him his great hold on the 
hearts of his people. Mr. Brigham, in the exer- 
cise of his pastoral duties, was in my boyhood a 
frequent visitor to our home. Among the many 
incidents which come to my mind, there is one 
which I recall with great vividness. My people 
at the time were living on a farm at the north 
of Homer village. On the afternoon of a bluster- 
ing winter day Mr. and Mrs. Brigham drove up 
to the door. Mr. Brigham loved good horses, and 
he was the owner then of a beautiful dappled bay, 
of which he was more careful than of himself. 
After he had gotten out and helped out Mrs. Brig- 
ham and had tied the horse to the hitching post, 
he unfastened his fur muffler and with it wiped 
the snow from the neck and back of his horse be- 
fore covering him with the blanket. My mother, 
who had been watching him from the window by 
which she was sewing, called me to her and said : 
"I want you to see how kind Mr. Brigham is to 
his horse, and I hope you will always remember, 
from seeing this act, that a ' merciful man is mer- 
ciful to his beast.' " 

Mr. Brigham was master in his high calling. 
He honored the ministry more than he was 
honored by being a minister. He believed that 
man was not self-called into the ministry, nor 
commissioned by men, but called of God. He be- 
lieved that his commission had reference to all 
parts of the field. He had enlisted in God's 
service and with soldierly spirit went where God 



106 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

sent him. In the four churches he served — Scipio, 
Manlius, Homer and Groton — the same principle 
operated whenever a change was made. 

In a conversation with him about the frequent 
pastoral changes of to-day he told me how prov- 
identially he was led to take the pastorate of the 
church at Homer. He did not feel qualified to 
take charge of a church and to minister to a 
people that had been shepherded by such men as 
Alfred Bennett, Edward Bright and Dr. Harvey, 
and was unwilling to appear before the church as 
a candidate. At length Dr. Harvey, his warm 
personal friend, who was to retire from the 
Homer pastorate in order to accept a professor- 
ship at Hamilton Theological Seminary, arranged 
an exchange without indicating his purpose to his 
people or to Mr. Brigham. The earnest sermons 
of the young stranger so captivated the people 
that he was unanimously and heartily called to 
preside over the church that had enjoyed the min- 
istrations of men who were recognized as de- 
nominational leaders. 

Yet successful as he was in his pastorate, and 
devoted as he was to the work, he did not allow 
it to restrain him from entering the door of wider 
opportunity and usefulness for his church, for his 
denomination and for his Lord. It was while 
prosecuting his labors as a faithful minister of 
Jesus Christ, and while enforcing upon his people 
in the Homer church the missionary purpose and 
character of the Gospel and the claims of those in 



GEORGE HOWE BRIGHAM 107 

the lands of darkness and of heathendom, that 
he was called, as he had been in his pastoral work 
without any aspiration or self-seeking, to the 
larger and more important work of district secre- 
taryship of the Missionary Union, our great 
foreign mission society. He loved the cause of 
foreign missions, and in the twenty years service 
which he gave to it he did the best work of his 
life. In this new and responsible position of ur- 
gent and numerous demands he did not abandon 
preaching, and as he traveled from church to 
church, and city to city, he found the coveted op- 
portunity of preaching on what to him was the 
grandest theme of the Gospel — Christian missions 
— and of imparting to his brethren something of 
the love that thrilled his own soul and impelled 
his own life. 

There is a remarkable coincidence between his 
life and the life of "Father Bennett,' ' whom he 
held in the highest veneration and esteem. Both 
lived for many years in the country, both served 
the Homer church in successful pastorates, and 
both were called from the Homer church to the 
work of awakening the interest of the churches in 
foreign missions, as field secretaries of the Mis- 
sionary Union. They both showed remarkable 
tact, patience, adaptability after weariness from 
long traveling, and under the taxing correspond- 
ence required to be thoroughly efficient in the 
service they rendered, which those who have not 
experienced can never know. 



108 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

Of the fifty-five years of Mr. Brigham 's min- 
isterial life, fifty were spent in Cortland comity. 
From the beginning of his ministry in Homer in 
1859 he may be said to have belonged to Homer 
and to Cortland. While he was pastor in Groton, 
he was not out of reach of his friends in these 
two places. He spent so much of his life in Cort- 
land and in Homer, and helped in so real a way 
to make these places what they are, that his name 
will always be associated with them. Cortland, 
rich in the names of noble men and of honored 
sons, possesses no name that will be more cher- 
ished, more exalted in religions annals and more 
honored, than that of George H. Brigham. 
Children will be told the story of his life and will 
learn to love him as we have loved him. Being 
dead he will yet speak. Christians will continne 
to emulate his example, and his words will be re- 
peated to coming generations. 

For the past seven years, during the greater 
part of which Mr. Brigham had been very feeble, 
he was most tenderly cared for by his devoted 
wife and the faithful nurses who did all that love 
could do for his comfort. Neighbors, acquaint- 
ances, friends in the three churches which he 
served, and brother pastors in this and other 
States, showed their interest and affection in 
kindly offices, thoughtful attention, and tender 
messages of affection and esteem. To retain the 
love and esteem of all through these long years, 
witnesses to the strong hold he had gained on his 



GEORGE HOWE BRIGHAM 109 

friends by his estimable character and unselfish 
service. Once he rallied and became strong 
enough to attend the Sunday worship in the 
church, so precious to him, and with the people 
he so dearly loved. For many months he suffered 
great mental anguish amounting almost to hope- 
lessness and despair, which is not unusual in the 
case of the purest and noblest souls, but which was 
a source of great pain to his friends, who knew 
how sure his hope was and how large an entrance 
would be granted unto him in the home beyond the 
skies : 

"Life's work well done, 
Life's race well run, 
Life's crown well won — 
Now comes rest." 

My relations with our dear friend were es- 
pecially close and intimate through these last 
years. I was favored in being a boy in his con- 
gregation when he was pastor at Homer. To me 
in my youth he was the embodiment of all wisdom 
and goodness. He was the first pastor to put his 
hand on my head and speak tender and encourag- 
ing words. I loved him first because my father 
and mother loved him, and then loved him for his 
own sake. From pastor he came to sustain the 
twofold relation to me of an elder brother and a 
father. He and his dear companion were always 
among the foremost to welcome me whenever I 



110 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

returned to Cortland, and he was helpful in coun- 
sel and steadfast in friendship. 

" 'Tis hard to part when friends are dear, 
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear; 
Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choose thine own time, 

Say not, ' Good-night, ' but in some brighter clime 
Bid me 'Good-morning.' " 



IV 

DANIEL CLARKE EDDY 

" Large is the life that flows for others ' sakes, 
Expends its best, its noblest effort makes. 
Devotion rounds the man and makes him whole ; 
Love is the measure of the human soul." 

MY entrance into the field of religious jour- 
nalism brought about me many new 
friends among whom was Rev. Daniel 
C. Eddy, D.D. He was at that time pastor of 
the First church, Williamsburg, then known as 
the Eastern District, Brooklyn, N. Y. He attended 
quite regularly the sessions of the Ministers' 
Conference, which met on Mondays at 9 Murray 
Street, New York, and was a dependable member 
of the Board of the Home Mission Society, with 
headquarters in Temple Court. But he was too 
much occupied with his own church work and de- 
nominational affairs in Brooklyn to give any time 
to gossiping with a little group about brother 
ministers and their church problems, or to go to 
some coffee-house for a luncheon with a few con- 
genial spirits. I do not recall ever having seen 
him at any public function in New York, nor did 

111 



112 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

he have the habit of dropping into The Examiner 
office occasionally as did some New York and 
Brooklyn pastors. He was, however, generally 
recognized as one of the leading Brooklyn pastors, 
and was ever ready to take an active part in 
everything that pertained to the betterment, so- 
cial, civic and religions, of his own city. My ac- 
quaintance with him at that time was only casnal, 
scarcely more than wonld be expressed by a bow 
of recognition as we met on the street. 

Sometime after The Baptist Weekly had come 
into my hands and had been reorganized nnder 
the name of The Christian Inquirer Dr. Eddy be- 
came an occasional contributor. He insisted 
strenuously on seeing the "proof" of everything 
he wrote, for his chirography was much after the 
style of Horace Greeley's and not at all legible to 
one not familiar with it. When it was inconven- 
ient or too late to send the proof to his house he 
would come to the office to make the needful cor- 
rections. After a time he was engaged as a regu- 
lar contributor, and then his visits became more 
frequent, generally once a week, frequently twice 
or three times. Sometimes he seemed to want to 
talk. Then he would draw his chair up near to 
my desk and would tell me about his newspaper 
or pastoral experiences in Boston or discuss with 
me questions relating to the work of the denomina- 
tion, local, national and international. He opened 
up his heart to me as in turn I did to him. Our 



DANIEL CLARKE EDDY 113 

relations became close and intimate. As the weeks 
went by be became 

"To me more dear, congenial to my heart.' ' 

I looked forward to his coming and had a keen 
feeling of disappointment when he failed to ap- 
pear. In all my circle of friends there was not 
one, so many years my senior, to whom I was 
more closely drawn than to Dr. Eddy. He was 
genial, helpful, fraternal, inspiring, charitable, 
Christian. He was dominated by the presence 
and power of the crucified and risen Christ, whom 
he loved and eloquently preached. Life had little 
of value to him apart from the service he could 
render his Master and Lord. He was one of the 
notable age that "dared much, suffered much and 
achieved much." He was one of that generation 
rapidly passing away that now looms so large that 

"We are scarce our fathers' shadows, cast at noon." 

Dr. Eddy was a puritan of the Puritans. He 
was born in Salem, Massachusetts, May 21, 1823. 
His father died when he was a small boy, and he 
was taken to his grandfather's home, where he 
grew up amid comfortable surroundings and en- 
joyed the advantages of early schooling. When 
turning fifteen he made his first appearance in 
public in a temperance address and immediately 
was in demand for addresses before temperance 



114 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

societies and churches. About this same time he 
began to preach and was so effective that he was 
much sought after as a supply and to fill vacant 
pulpits. He became known in and about Salem 
by the sobriquet, "the boy preacher.'' At the age 
of nineteen he was baptized into the fellowship 
of the Second Baptist church, of Salem. He felt 
impelled to give himself to the gospel ministry, 
and after completing his theological studies at 
New Hampton Theological Institute, New Hamp- 
shire, in 1845, he accepted, before the closing of 
the year, the call of the First church, Lowell, 
Massachusetts. He entered upon his pastorate 
January 2, 1846, and was ordained the same 
month. He continued to serve this church as 
pastor for ten years, and they were years of no- 
table prosperity and growth. During this period 
there were added to the membership of the church 
the large number of 1005, an average of about 
one hundred a year. Of this number 637 were re- 
ceived by baptism. About the middle of this re- 
markably successful pastorate, in the year 1850, 
Dr. Eddy was granted a leave of absence for rest 
and recuperation of his health greatly overtaxed 
by excessive strain and incessant labor. This re- 
spite from work he spent in travel in Europe. His 
observations and experiences found embodiment 
in the book Europa, published in 1851. 

While Dr. Eddy was pastor at Lowell the 
"Know Nothings," a secret political party hav- 
ing for its purpose the preventing of the election 



DANIEL CLARKE EDDY 115 

or appointment of aliens to office, came into be- 
ing. When the question was raised as to their 
movements or intentions the members invariably 
replied : " I don 't know, ' ' hence their name. Their 
slogan was, "Americans must rule America. " In 
the elections for a few years the new party showed 
surprising strength, but after 1860 it began to 
wane, and soon ceased to be a political factor. 
In the year 1854 Dr. Eddy was nominated by this 
new party as a representative from Lowell to the 
Massachusetts Legislature and was elected. On 
his taking his seat and on the organization of the 
House he was chosen Speaker. He had had little 
or no experience in presiding over a deliberative 
assembly, but he conducted the business with so 
much fairness and despatch that the House gave 
him a unanimous vote of thanks "for the prompt- 
ness, ability and urbanity with which he had per- 
formed the duties of the presiding officer during 
the prolonged deliberations of the present ses- 
sion.' ' Dr. Eddy served as Chaplain of the Sen- 
ate for two sessions. 

But a man of Dr. Eddy's ability and versatility 
was certain to be in demand. From Lowell he 
was called to Boston in 1856 to the pastorate of 
the Harvard Street church. His ministry in this 
great center of culture and commerce was at- 
tended with continued spiritual growth and large 
ingatherings as was his first pastorate. During 
the six years that he ministered to the Harvard 
Street church he welcomed 478 new members into 



116 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

fellowship, a large proportion by baptism. Twice 
during this pastorate he went abroad, extending 
his travels the second time through Palestine and 
Turkey. 

Dr. Eddy's power and popularity as a preacher 
and pulpit orator were not confined, however, to 
environs most congenial to himself. In November, 
1862, he was called to the pastorate of the Taber- 
nacle church, Philadelphia. When the Missionary 
Union held its jubilee meeting in that city in 1864 
Dr. Eddy was chosen to give the address of wel- 
come. Whether the "Quaker City" failed to re- 
spond to his fervid appeals or whether he felt 
"out of his element out of New England," he 
never said, but after two years he returned to 
Boston to take charge of the Baldwin Place 
church, then unfavorably located and considerably 
reduced in membership. Under his leadership a 
new location was secured on Warren Avenue, a 
new edifice was erected, and an almost entirely 
new congregation was gathered. Great growth 
and advancement attended Dr. Eddy's labors at 
Warren Avenue. The church under his ministry 
assumed a position it has long maintained as one 
of the most evangelical and aggressive of the Bos- 
ton churches, a living monument to its noble 
founder and first pastor. 

Dr. Eddy's subsequent pastorates were at Fall 
Biver, Massachusetts, again in Boston at Hyde 
Park, one of the beautiful suburbs of the city, and 
lastly in Brooklyn, E. D. To this last pastorate 



DANIEL CLARKE EDDY 117 

Dr. Eddy gave fifteen years of the mature judg- 
ment and ripe experience of a long and blessed 
ministry. The church, founded in 1839, occupied 
an influential and honorable place in the "City 
of Churches. " His immediate predecessor was 
the scholarly and dignified Dr. Daniel Reed. The 
membership at the time of Dr. Eddy's assuming 
the pastorate was 543. It was soon manifest that 
a new edifice in a more accessible location was a 
necessity. Under his inspiring leadership the en- 
terprise was carried to successful completion. 
The new and handsome edifice was dedicated 
April 30, 1885. Some few years later the indebt- 
edness of $40,000 was raised, and the mortgage 
was burned amid great rejoicing of pastor and 
people. There were continual accessions to the 
membership during this pastorate, 188 being 
added by baptism. 

During Dr. Eddy's ministry with the Williams- 
burg church he was recognized as a dominant 
figure among the Baptists of Brooklyn. His in- 
terest and spirit of helpfulness went out to all the 
churches of the Association, and he was much in 
demand for sermons and addresses. He mani- 
fested intense missionary zeal in the organization 
of new churches and in the raising of funds for 
building new houses of worship. His advice was 
sought at critical junctures, and confidence and 
courage were inspired by his leadership. He was 
one of the founders of the Brooklyn Baptist Church 
Extension Society and an efficient officer and 



118 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME _ 

leader in its work. He was recognized as a 
"master of assemblies. ' ' For four years he 
served as moderator of the Long Island Associa- 
tion. The sermon he preached before the Associa- 
tion in 1890 on "The Imperiled Foundations/ ' 
produced a profound impression. He was chair- 
man of the Committee on Missions of the Board 
of the Home Mission Society and actively co- 
operated with the work of the Missionary Union, 
the Publication Society and other missionary 
agencies. 

In January, 1896, his loyal and devoted people 
of the Williamsburg church united heartily with 
their pastor in celebrating the "golden jubilee" 
of his ministry. The members with pastor and 
friends from neighboring churches and from New 
York gathered at a bountiful dinner provided by 
the women of the church in the large lecture room 
appropriately decorated for the occasion. The 
dinner was followed by tender and sincere tributes 
of appreciation and affection spoken by pastors 
endeared by long and intimate relationship, the 
reading of letters and telegrams of congratula- 
tion from absent friends, and an hour of social 
enjoyment. The occasion was one of gladness 
and rejoicing and brought a measurable sense of 
cheer and thankfulness to the modest, humble 
heart of the man of God in whose honor the cele- 
bration was held. 

Time had dealt so gently with Dr. Eddy that 
no one thought on this glad occasion that his work 



DANIEL CLARKE EDDY 119 

was drawing to a close. Few silver threads 
showed in his hair, and he was bowed by no in- 
firmity, yet as the spring drew on unmistakable 
signs of the " burden of years" were more and 
more manifest in face and walk as well as in lassi- 
tude of feeling. He felt that they were only in- 
dications of needed change and rest after the 
strain of years, and he did not allow himself to 
cherish any apprehension or undue concern. He 
believed that after a summer's rest he would be 
equal to his pastoral demands again. With the 
return of sultry, debilitating days the church he 
had lovingly and faithfully served saw with 
greater solicitude than did he the need of prompt 
and long release from work and voted him a leave 
of absence of six months, assuming all respon- 
sibility for the pulpit and pastoral duties. He 
went away to the quiet and bracing air of Cottage 
City, at beautiful Martha's Vineyard, dear to him 
from long and tender associations and lasting 
friendships. 

For my summer outing I went, as had been 
my custom for several years, to Upper Saranac 
Lake in the Adirondacks, and while sojourning 
there a telegram came to me bearing the sad and 
surprising news of Dr. Eddy's death on Sunday 
morning, July 26. He ' l met his pilot face to face ' ' 
when the choir at the church were singing "Cross- 
ing the Bar." The telegram also brought the in- 
vitation to come to Martha's Vineyard to conduct 
the funeral services. For some reason, still un- 



120 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

known to me, the message was so long delayed 
that it was not delivered nntil after my friend had 
been borne to his last resting place. This has 
been to this day a source of regret to me. "He 
was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and 
of faith, " and all who ever knew him could join 
in pronouncing over him the words: 

Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord. 

Dr. Eddy was a many-sided man. First and 
foremost he was a preacher, and as a preacher 
he was the peer of any Baptist of his time. 
Preaching was his chief concern. Everything else 
he did was subservient to the one great and God- 
given privilege of preaching the good news of 
salvation. He was by nature specially qualified 
for this exalted work. He had a rich, musical 
voice. He had great freedom and ease on the 
platform. He had the passion and power of an 
orator. He possessed that mysterious quality 
called "magnetism' ' so absolutely essential to 
an effective speaker. Above all he was richly 
endued by the Holy Spirit. He spoke as the 
Spirit gave him utterance. He measured well up 
to the Apostle's requirement for "a good minister 
of Jesus Christ." He heeded the injunction, 
"Preach the Word, be instant in season out of 
season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suf- 
fering and doctrine." His sermons were full of 
soul and fire. They were alive with feeling and 



DANIEL CLARKE EDDY 121 

breathed out the heart of sympathy and love of 
his inmost being. By drinking daily at the foun- 
tain of truth he kept his theology pure and fresh 
as the gospel. He found his topics like all great 
preachers in the needs of the people. His style 
was simple, fresh, clear, rhetorical. He could not 
say anything in a dull, uninteresting way. The 
commonplace events took on new interest as soon 
as they felt the breath of his spirit and genius of his 
personality. But he spoke not to men's intellects 
alone, but to their consciences as well. He held 
up Christ as the Saviour and Eedeemer of all who 
would put their trust in him, — the life as well as 
the light of men. 

But he was not a preacher alone. He was also 
a devoted pastor. He was pre-eminently a 
preacher-pastor. He united in himself in an un- 
usual degree the rare gifts of presenting the 
gospel so as to command a large hearing with the 
rarer gift of an inspiriting pastoral care and over- 
sight. He believed a home-going pastor made a 
church-going people. He knew not only how to 
feed the sheep but how wisely to shepherd them. 
His great heart was full of sympathy and he 
never turned a deaf ear to any who came to him 
for counsel or relief. Like his Master "he came 
not to be ministered unto but to minister,' ' and 
only that day was well spent which was crowded 
full of Christian service for his people, for his 
brethren or for mankind. 

Dr. Eddy was also a popular and prolific 



122 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

author. He published a number of books cover- 
ing a wide range of subjects, and differing very 
widely in character. One of his first books 
"Young Man's Friend," published in 1849 had a 
wide circulation. His books of travel were also 
widely read and favorably considered. The sur- 
prise is that under the pressure of his first pastor- 
ate at Lowell, so remarkably blessed by large ac- 
cessions, he should have been able to publish 
seven books in five consecutive years — The Bur- 
mese Apostle (1850) ; Europa (1851) ; The Percy 
Family, in five volumes (1852) ; Angel Whispers 
(1853) ; and Heroines of the Missionary Enter- 
prise, Daughters of the Cross and City-Side 
(1854). In 1861 he published Walter's Tour in 
the East, in six volumes. After his removal to 
Brooklyn he published (1881) Rip Van Winkle's 
Travels in Foreign Lands, in two volumes, under 
the nom de plume, Eupert Van Wert. When the 
copyright of The Percy Family expired in 1882, 
the book under a new copyright was published as 
Our Traveling Party. In all his books the re- 
ligious element predominates. The aim always 
was to teach some vital truth or to impress some 
foundation principle of life and character. His 
last book, the historical novel Saxonhurst, em- 
phasizes the importance of building on truth and 
righteousness if progress and prosperity are to be 
assured. 

But preaching and authorship did not limit Dr. 
Eddy's endeavor. He found in religious journal- 



.' * JDANIEL CLARKE EDDY 123 

ism a congenial field for his great activity and 
energy. Many felt that this was his time sphere 
and that if he had given his whole strength to it 
he would have been the peer of any of the great 
editors of his time. As it was he attained high 
rank and exerted a wide influence as an editorial 
writer and contributor. When The Christian Era 
was started in Lowell in June, 1852, to meet the 
demands for a more pronounced anti-slavery 
paper, Dr. Eddy gave to it his powerful influence 
and his ready pen, promoting greatly its circula- 
tion and success. He sustained to the paper the 
two-fold relation of editorial writer and consult- 
ing editor. The same year in which Dr. Eddy 
went to Boston, in 1856, Dr. A. Webster, a warm 
family friend, purchased the paper and moved it 
to Boston and became its editor, Dr. Eddy con- 
tinuing to give it such editorial and advisory sup- 
port as the growing demands of his city pastorate 
would permit. 

For many years after moving to Brooklyn 
Dr. Eddy wrote the New York Letter for The 
Standard of Chicago. Dr. Eddy was an inspiring, 
stimulating and compelling writer for The Chris- 
tian Inquirer. He was also deeply interested in 
the progress and permanency of the paper. When 
the proposition of union with The Examiner was 
Under consideration he expressed his hope 
strongly that the paper might continue to occupy 
the large field it had made for itself and said to 
me: " If I were ten years younger I would cheer- 



124 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

fully take part of your burden of conducting the 
paper.' ' When the union of the two papers 
seemed, in view of all the circumstances, most ad- 
visable in expressing his appreciation of the 
anxious and laborious effort the paper had de- 
manded, he said: "You may find that the best 
work of your life has been done through The 
Inquirer." 

Dr.- Eddy set a high value upon a religious 
paper as a means of stimulating religious and 
missionary growth and endeavor. He believed 
that the religious weekly was the best assistant 
that a pastor could have and that churches could 
maintain little healthy groAvth unless the members 
kept themselves informed regarding the religious 
and missionary activities the world over. But 
Dr. Eddy was a loyal defender of American in- 
stitutions and customs, and the religious paper 
afforded to him the channel for the expression of 
his intense Americanism. He gloried in New 
England, the home of the Pilgrims and the Puri- 
tans, the land of good manners and steady habits, 
the home of the school houses, churches and Bible 
societies, of liberty of conscience and of popular 
government enthusiastically approved. He loved 
to speak of the days when the American people 
threw off the yoke of the mother country and 
"rose to a great, free, glorious nationality. ' ' He 
was jealous of all that the fathers had so dearly 
purchased and was ever keenly alive to any in- 
fluence that might be of a subverting or destroy- 



DANIEL CLARKE EDDY "125 

ing nature. On this account he believed in re- 
stricting immigration. It was his early conviction 
that "we are becoming a nation of foreigners so 
fast that the whole future is full of danger." It 
was the threatened danger to American institu- 
tions that made him such a relentless antagonist 
to Romanism and the Roman Catholic Church. 
He believed Romanism was opposed to American- 
ism, therefore he opposed Romanism. He held 
liberty of conscience as fundamental, that free 
schools are an absolute necessity, and that free 
speech and a free press should be inviolate and 
church and state forever separate. 

The prohibition principles which Dr. Eddy 
espoused and advocated in his teens controlled him 
to the end. If to his deep moral convictions there 
is added his intense Americanism reason is 
furnished for his stand as ardent prohibitionist. 
For him "temperate in all things' ' would not do. 
The only safety in respect to intoxicating liquors 
was absolute prohibition. The declaration that 
prohibition is not practical and does nothing for 
a town or city, to him, was fallacious. The trouble, 
he held, is that prohibition is not enforced. It 
will do nothing for a community, as no other legis- 
lation would, if not enforced. Enforce the laws 
against gambling and theft and you drive those 
crimes out of society; so enforce prohibition and 
society would feel the beneficial effect. During 
his Brooklyn pastorate there was a division of 
sentiment among the Brooklyn Baptist churches on 



126 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME $ 

the question of using "Excise money" for the 
benefit of "The Baptist Home." It was arranged 
that the question should be discussed and decided 
by vote at a public meeting. Deacon W. J. 
Eichardson, president of the Atlantic Avenue 
road, took the affirmative and Dr. Eddy the nega- 
tive, with the result that Dr. Eddy was supported 
by an almost unanimous vote. Dr. Eddy believed 
that intemperance was the monster evil of the 
Republic. No one could estimate what good the 
extinction of the liquor traffic would do for the 
nation. If there were moral sentiment sufficient 
back of a law of that kind it could be enforced 
and our cities, homes and young men would be 
a hundred fold the better for it. It is remark- 
able how suited to to-day are Dr. Eddy's thoughts 
and arguments. Many of his words might have 
been written to-day so applicable are they to the 
conditions of our time. He was almost prophetic 
in his utterances and had a vision of the day that 
has since dawned when a great prohibition wave 
would sweep over the country and exert a domi- 
nating influence in factories, on railways and in 
armies and navies around the world. 

Among the outstanding traits that contributed 
to Dr. Eddy's remarkable symmetry of character 
was his singular poise. It would seem to violate 
all reason to think of Dr. Eddy as ever manifest- 
ing undue feeling or allowing himself to become 
at all ruffled or drawn into contention. Never to 
our knowledge did an unkind or hasty word pass 



DANIEL CLARKE EDDY , ,. 127 

his lips. He never lent himself to trifling gossip, 
to talking about himself or to acrimonious feeling. 
He was always dignified, kindly, courteous and 
withal calm and serene under great perplexity or 
provocation. The peace of Christ, himself the 
Prince of Peace, kept him in perfect peace. He 
radiated cheer and hope as a diamond radiates 
sunlight. His presence always brought gladness, 
courage and resolution into any circle. A neigh- 
boring pastor and friend truly said of him: "He 
was not given to hobbies or to new methods or to 
sensationalism of any sort. The passing popu- 
larity of some new measure, the apparent power 
of some gifted eccentricity did not move him 
either to envy or imitation." He moved steadily 
forward majestically, like a great ocean steamer, 
undisturbed by the waves of higher criticism, ra- 
tionalism or liberty of thought that swept about 
him or the winds of popular favor, non-sectarian- 
ism or denominational preferment that blew upon 
him. 

Dr. Eddy had a keen appreciation of the beauti- 
ful and was familiar with the most that is best 
in art, music, poetry and literature. He had great 
pride in and knew personally many of the brilliant 
coterie of writers whose names are indissolubly 
associated with Boston and Concord, nearly all of 
whom were his contemporaries. He treasured as 
among his most precious possessions the letters 
sent to him by men whose names are " household 
words" among all lovers of fiction, poetry and 



128 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

philosophy. He was catholic in his tastes and 
counted among his friends not only literary men 
bnt those active in the political, educational and 
commercial world. He is remembered as always 
sharing his interest and fellowship with those 
who were either counted unfortunate or unable to 
contend against the sterner forces that beat 
against them. Much time and effort were spent 
in helping his brethren who coveted his influence 
and assistance in securing opportunities to sup- 
ply or a permanent settlement. 

Dr. Eddy set great store on the part music 
should have in the worship in our churches. He 
believed it should be dignified, uplifting, soulful, 
worshipful. In reply to the note sent out to 
ministers in various parts of the country by a 
New York religious weekly: "What is in your 
opinion the best hymn in the English language 
and why do you so regard it!" he said: " Corona- 
tion. ? ' His reasons are stated in his letter : 

1 i I put at the head of the hymns the old familiar 
one of Edward Perronet, 'All hail the power of 
Jesus' name!' which bears date of 1780, for the 
following reasons: 

"1. Its beautiful simplicity and grandeur. 
Aside from all sentiment it is a literary gem. 

"2. It rises above all individual hopes and 
fears, joys and sorrows. Many beautiful hymns 
fit only one phase of mind ; one state of experience. 
They are only best and most beautiful to those 



DANIEL CLARKE EDDY 129 

in that state of mind or frame of thought. This 
hymn is as comprehensive as Christianity. 

"3. It emphasizes the idea toward which all 
human thought is tending, all the events of ages 
marching — the enthronement of Christ as univer- 
sal King. It will live beyond all others, because 
it holds, as does no other the supreme idea of all 
Christendom. \ ' 

Dr. Eddy compiled a hymn book, giving to it 
the careful preparation which he bestowed upon 
everything he did, but as two books for use in 
Baptist churches were issued about the time his 
was completed, it was never published. 

Dr. Eddy's marriage had a color of romance 
about it. After one of his early temperance lec- 
tures he urged all who were so disposed to come 
forward and sign the pledge. Among the number 
who came to the front was a bright-faced girl who 
arrested his attention. As she was waiting to 
sign her name he leaned over the desk and asked : 
"What is your name, little girl?" In a sweet 
clear voice she replied: "Elizabeth Stone." The 
memory of that face and voice never left him. 
Shortly after he had entered upon the pastorate 
of the church in Lowell, he was united in marriage 
to Elizabeth Stone, of Salem, his native place. 
Two sons and two daughters were born to them. 
One of the sons died at the interesting age of ten 
and one of the daughters when she was only three. 
Mrs. Eddy who survived her husband was an 
earnest and efficient helpmate, a woman of lofty 



130 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

ideals, exemplified in a beautiful Christian life. 
She entered into her rest November 16, 1914. Dr. 
Eddy was greatly attached to his family and his 
friends. He regarded his home as his castle. In 
it he found not only a refuge but the loving sym- 
pathy, mutual fellowship and unity of interest of 
the ideal home. He found also the inspiration 
and courage that gave him in public a power and 
wisdom his adversaries were not able to gainsay 
or resist. 

Dr. Eddy's last years were enriched by content- 
ment and peace. The evening of his life was like 
that of a rare summer day. He could look back 
with rejoicing over a long and blessed ministry, 
and forward with confidence and full assurance 
of hope. After fifty years of service as preacher, 
author, editor, contributor, legislator and coun- 
selor, he had the consciousness that there was not 
a shadow upon his life and that he posessed the 
love and confidence of his fellow men in every 
circle in which he had moved. He was ready "to 
depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. ' f 

"Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail 
Or knock the breast ; no weakness, no contempt, 
Dispraise, or blame, nothing but well and fair 
And what may quiet us in a death so noble. ' ' 



WILLIAM ALBURTIS CAULDWELL 

IT is a source of regret to me that a previous 
engagement to preach at the Baptist Home 
prevented my being here through this entire 
service, but I am thankful for the privilege of 
these last few minutes, for I should not wish to 
be thought false to my own feelings, nor indif- 
ferent to the memory of my friend by not appear- 
ing here and contributing in some small way to 
the chaplet you have been weaving this afternoon 
in appreciation of the services of Mr. Cauldwell 
as superintendent of the Sunday school and office 
bearer in this church. 

I am asked to speak of Mr. Cauldwell's relation 
to the church. The story of his life may be briefly 
told. He was the son of Ebenezer Cauldwell, a 
man highly esteemed in Baptist circles and 
recognized as one of the substantial and trusted 
members of this church. He was born in this city 
May 21, 1827. When quite young he entered 
Columbia College but was not able to complete 
his course because of failing health. His father, 
believing in the efficacy of sea-air ? took him on an 

131 



132 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

extended voyage which probably not only was the 
means of adding many years to his life but was 
in itself a liberal education. Although Mr. Cauld- 
well was never strong he Avas able by care to 
render a varied and valuable service. For many 
years he was actively identified with the Sabbath 
Committee, the American Tract Society, the Bap- 
tist City Mission Society and the Home Mission 
Society. He entered peacefully into rest this past 
week (March 13, 1893), at his home 16 West 54th 
Street, as one falling asleep. 

In speaking of his relation to the church, I 
scarcely know where to begin or where to end. 
His life was so woven into the church and the 
church entered so largely into all his life, that to 
try to think of one apart from the other would be 
like trying to separate the fragrance from the 
flower. All of his Christian life of about twenty- 
eight years was passed in the fellowship of this 
church. His conception of the church was that 
it is the House of God. He believed, as we all 
do, that God is everywhere; that if we should take 
the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost 
parts of the earth that we could not escape from 
His presence, and yet he believed that in a pecu- 
liar and special sense the church is God's dwelling 
place. He accepted as true the teachings of Scrip- 
ture: " Behold the tabernacles of the Lord are 
with men and I will dwell among them, and I will 
be their God and they shall be my people. ' ' " The 
Lord is in his holy temple/ ' "He shall stand 



WILLIAM ALBURTIS CAULDWELL m 133 

in the great congregation. ' ' " Where two or three 
are gathered together in my name there am I in 
the midst of them." The church, therefore, was 
sacred to him. It was a holy place, full of the 
glory of him who dwells in the sanctuary. 

So Mr. Cauldwell loved his church. As the 
church was the earthly abode of his heavenly 
Father and of Jesus his elder brother, he loved 
it with steadily increasing love. He believed that 
the church should appeal to all that is best in 
us, and he sought to make it bright and beautiful. 
He would have Christ exalted, the services 
evangelical, and the people filled with the spirit, 
making melody in their hearts with psalms and 
hymns and spiritual songs. In this church which 
he strove to have meet his ideal, he spent many 
happy hours in communion and fellowship with 
God's people. Here he saw Jesus take the little 
ones in His arms and bless them; here he heard 
those, whom he had taught, who had found Jesus 
as their Saviour, tell of their new born love and 
show their willing obedience by following Him in 
the baptismal waters; here he gathered with 
those, who were dearer to him than any outside 
of his own household, about the table of the Lord 
to partake with them of the last supper. For this 
church building he toiled and labored with un- 
ceasing labor until the capstone was lifted to its 
place, just as faithfully and untiringly as he had 
labored and toiled through many previous years 
for its spiritual upbuilding until it might almost 



134 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

be said of him as it was said of his blessed Master 
that "he gave his life for the church." So great 
was his love for this building and for all who 
gathered here from week to week to worship, that 
I can easily conceive of him when standing in this 
place, as superintendent, or sitting in his pew in 
the other room as worshiper, as breathing in 
silent prayer the words : 

"I see Thee not, I hear Thee not 
Yet Thou art oft with me; 
There is no spot so sweet on earth 
As where I meet with Thee." 

Cherishing such a love for the church he at- 
tended all its services as regularly as his health 
and strength would allow. Mr. Cauldwell was 
never a strong man. When we were together with 
him and his family last spring in Savannah he 
called in a physician. When the doctor asked him 
how long he had been ill, he replied, in his peculiar 
way, "For forty years." And though the doctor 
looked a little puzzled the reply was the truth. He 
had always been a frail, delicate man, and if ever 
anyone would be justified in staying away from 
the services of the church he would have been. 
But he never made his poor health an excuse for 
not filling his place and doing his work in the 
church and Sunday school. At the time to which 
I have alluded, when he was hardly able to attend 
the services of the First church in Savannah, he 
told me on his way back to the hotel what a 



WILLIAM ALBURTIS CAULDWELL 135 

pleasure it had been to hear his old friend Dr. 
Lathrop again, and how enjoyable to him were 
the services of the Lord's house even in a strange 
city. 

He was trained to go to church when a boy. I 
have often heard members of our family tell how 
his father would walk in to the old Oliver Street 
church with William by his side Sunday after 
Sunday. That habit formed in boyhood continued 
with him during all the years of his membership 
in Calvary church. He was among the most 
regular attendants upon the preaching services on 
Sunday. He was among the most energetic in 
the Sunday school. He was among the most gen- 
erous in giving his strength, time and means to 
every worthy cause. He was so efficient as an 
officer and trustee that in the board he was spoken 
of as the "oak" upon whom all could lean in any 
emergency. He was the prince of Sunday school 
superintendents. It was given to him to see great 
changes in the little more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury in which he was connected with this church. 
In his time the membership increased from 250 
to more than 1500; the old church building on 
Twenty-third Street gave way to business and 
this stately edifice was erected. He saw all the 
former pastors and many of the staunch, strong 
men who had stood in the forefront of Baptist 
circles, not only in this church, but in this city, 
pass away. 

In the Cathedral of St. Marks, in Venice, cele- 



136 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

brated for its beauty and brilliant with oriental 
color, are a number of matchless alabaster 
columns which are said to have been transported 
there from the Temple of Solomon. Although as 
hard as granite, they are composed of such 
peculiar substance that they appear to the be- 
holder to be translucent. Those columns it seems 
to me are typical of the men of strength and 
honored name who were in their day like pillars 
in this church, but who have been transported and 
translated one by one from the church militant 
to the church triumphant, where they shine with 
increasing splendor in the Temple not made with 
hands. Bishop, Bayne, Constant and Cauldwell, 
— what great names! How they shine in the 
firmament of Baptist church history in this city! 
How exalted they are in glory! 

"While we were worshiping together in the 
other room this morning, I could not help think- 
ing of our dear friend at the same hour wor- 
shiping with the heavenly congregation on this 
his first Sunday in glory. And as I was thinking, 
I could almost imagine the walls expanding and 
the congregation extending until it mingled with 
the larger congregation around the throne and the 
members here joining with the larger membership 
over there in the "Song of Moses and the Lamb." 
There is a note of sadness in our service this 
afternoon, but there is a sweeter note of joy, for 
our friend has heard the Saviour say: "Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 



WILLIAM ALBURTIS CAULDWELL 137 

pared for you from the foundation of the world. ' ' 
He has joined in worship on this beautiful Sunday 
with the Church of the Eedeemed, and with all 
closely associated with him in the work here who 
have gone on before, and "so he will be forever 
with his Lord." 



VI 

JAMES DUANE SQUIBES 

MES. BROWNING on one occasion, it is re- 
ported, asked Charles Kingsley to tell 
her the secret of his life. His simple 
reply was : " I had a friend. ' ' Sadly different was 
the experience of Mark Rutherford as related by 
Dr. Malcolm MacLeod. Rutherford had "a life- 
long desire and hope for a friend to whom he 
could pour out his deepest and his saddest 
thoughts. With wistful eyes he searched for 
years for someone who could understand him 
and to whom he could unlock and unburden his 
soul. But the friend never appeared and Ruther- 
ford became moody and sullen and glum." 

In any enumeration that I have ever been able 
to make of my blessings I have placed first in the 
list my friends. Among my "host of friends* ' I 
have never found one who appealed to me just as 
Duane did, or one who exerted so indelible an 
influence upon my life. Our friendship began in 
our boyhood days in Cortland. Indeed, as little 
boys we were more like lovers, and were always 
together. Our homes were on the same street. We 

138 



JAMES DUANE SQUIRES 139 

went to school together. We played together. We 
attended the same church and were in the same 
Sunday school. I was his senior in years as I was 
also physically of larger frame. We were unlike 
in temperament and in other ways, 

"And he supplied my want the more 
As his unlikeness fitted mine. ,, 

The strong attachment of boyhood grew 
through our college days and through the years 
of our younger manhood into a firm and mutually 
fraternal friendship that continued steadfast and 
unbroken to the end. 

In the years of our close and intimate associa- 
tion he was a general favorite and was universally 
esteemed. Notable among the qualities that drew 
forth admiration and made him the center of 
affection and interest were his pure and high 
ideals, his resoluteness of purpose, his enthusias- 
tic interest in people and in human progress, his 
alertness of mind, his tenacity of grasp, and his 
heroic spirit in meeting rebuffs — all animated and 
ennobled by a deeply religious spirit. These gifts, 
together with his genial, open-hearted and social 
nature, his ready and sympathetic response, his 
wise and intelligent counsels, and his ever kind 
and generous impulses, kindled in me warm and 
continued admiration. In the language of Holy 
Scripture I can say my soul was knit to his as 
"the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of 



140 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

David. ' ' " Very pleasant has thou been nnto me : 
thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love 
of women.' 9 

In Tennyson's immortal song, "In Mentoriam,," 
which broke out of a heart grieving for the loss of 
a devotedly loved friend so ardently admired and 
so fondly cherished as almost to be accounted his 
other self, I find reflected the sacredness and 
significance of our rare, unselfish friendship and 
of my eagerness, when oppressed by the great 
sense of loss, to penetrate the mysteries of death 
and to know what blessedness is his in the world 
beyond. 

( Now, after passing years have borne me along 
to a new vantage ground, with judgment matured 
and mellowed and with a wider prospect in which 
men and events can be viewed in truer propor- 
tions and with more impartial mind, I find myself 
affirming the sentiment of my boyhood, while set- 
ting a new and higher value upon friendships that 
have their springs in childhood and their basis in 
qualities that are always regarded as sterling 
among men. As Gladstone in his later years re- 
verted to his boyhood affection for Arthur Hal- 
lam, cut down in early manhood, than whom he 
had found none of greater worth or promise, so 
among the many delightful relations and recollec- 
tions that crowd in upon me at this time Duane 
stands out as in boyhood, definite and distinct, 
filling in my thoughts his own large and unique 
place and uniting in himself, in unusual propor- 



JAMES DUANE SQUIRES 141 

tions and in rare perfection, qualities that give 
added luster to his character as the years go by. 
Duane was the eldest son of James S. Squires, 
a leading merchant and banker of Cortland, New 
York. Born February 8, 1855, he was one of a 
family of eleven half-brothers and sisters, and a 
unique place he had in that family. His first 
boyish ambition was not to do anything that 
would displease his father or mother, and rarely, 
if ever, was he reproved for misconduct. He 
strove with equal interest to show the spirit of 
brotherly helpfulness and affection to his brothers 
and sisters. To him, in turn, they all looked in a 
peculiar way, and his advice was sought in all 
matters of family concern. He loved his home 
and delighted in nothing more than in speaking 
of the manifold beauties of "old Cortland." In 
college he was known as "the Cortland man," and 
was more often called "Sammie" than Duane by 
his intimates, because he had frequently expressed 
the wish that his middle name had been 
" Samuel,' ' as was his father's. Vacations always 
seemed to signify more to him because they were 
to be spent at home, in Cortland. His home-com- 
ing was always a glad and gala occasion. It was 
to Cortland that he always turned for his Christ- 
mas and Easter holidays. It was to Cortland that 
he took his bride for their first summer outing, 
which was spent in driving in company with his 
brother and sister over the rolling hills and 
among the peaceful valleys. It was to Cortland, 



142 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

to enjoy its bracing air and his sister's hospitable 
home, that he journeyed after his first serious ill- 
ness. And again, at the close, it was to Cortland 
with the circle of loved ones there that he eagerly 
looked and to which he was speeding across the 
plains from California when the summons came. 
Probably Duane's most outstanding character- 
istic was his deeply religious nature. His pure 
and gentle spirit early marked him for another 
world than this. When as a lad, early in January, 
1868, after a serious illness, I consecrated my life 
to my Saviour, my first wish was that Duane might 
share the joy of a like experience. At my en- 
treaty he accompanied me to special meetings 
then holding in the Methodist church. After an 
earnest appeal at the close of an awakening ser- 
mon he went forward for prayer. On going home 
he told his mother what he had done and of his 
desire to be a Christian. When she explained to 
him that he might find his Saviour by just believ- 
ing upon him and by trusting his all to him he 
committed himself unreservedly to Christ and be- 
came his loving and obedient child. He began at 
once to testify of the l>ve of Jesus and of the 
joy he had in His service. His words often gave 
evidence of such certainty of faith and maturity 
of experience as to excite the comment of his 
pastor and of the older members of the church. 
His early Christian experience was remarkable 
for its simple and childlike trust, and gave 
evidence of his close and irtimate fellowship with 



JAMES DUANE SQUIRES 143 

his Lord. Jesus was always to him a living, per- 
sonal being of whom and to whom he spoke as of 
a loved friend. 

In the fall of this same year Dr. Earle, the 
eminent evangelist, assisted Elder Wilkins, the 
pastor of the Baptist church in Cortland, in a 
series of special meetings. They proved a season 
of peculiar interest to Duane and of great 
spiritual refreshing to the church. As they drew 
to a close one beautiful Sunday afternoon he, with 
fourteen of his companions, was baptized in the 
river down by the " stone mill ,, and afterwards 
received into the fellowship of the church. Mean- 
while, because of my father's failing health neces- 
sitating a milder climate, my family had moved 
to New Brunswick, New Jersey. After an absence 
of a year and a half we moved back to Cortland. 
During this period Duane 's letters never failed to 
bear some reference to the church activities or to 
the young people 's or other work in which he was 
especially interested. Church membership to him 
meant spiritual growth and activity. His subse- 
quent years were marked by earnest devotion and 
faithfulness to all his church obligations and 
duties. 

In the winter of 1872-73 after graduating with 
honor from the Normal School, in Cortland, 
Duane took charge of the school in what was 
known as the "Gulf District. ,, As a teacher he 
was unusually successful, arousing in his pupils 
a love for study and inspiring them to noble en- 



144 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

deavor. Finishing his teaching in the spring, and 
anxions to follow my conrse of the previous year, 
he reviewed his college requirements at the Col- 
legiate Institute in Eochester, and was duly en- 
rolled in 1873 in the entering class of the Univer- 
sity of Eochester at Commencement. Throughout 
our college life in Eochester we roomed in the 
same house and sat at the same table. We were 
members of the same fraternity. 

As a student Duane took high rank, and was 
popular alike with professors and students. Dur- 
ing his college course he secured several honors, 
winning a prize for oratory at the close of his 
Sophomore year. He was actively identified with 
the First Baptist church, and served frequently 
as supply teacher in the Sunday school until 
elected assistant librarian, filling the position un- 
til his graduation. 

The fall after my graduation from Eochester 
found me in New York as a student in Union 
Theological Seminary, and the following fall, 
after his graduation, Duane joined me in the city 
to study law. Through the kindness of Mr. 
Charles E. Leffingwell, of the Bank of North 
America, 44 Wall Street, he secured a clerkship 
in the large office of McDaniel, Lummis & 
Souther, 8 and 10 Pine Street. At the end of 
eight weeks Mr. Whitehead, of 59 Wall Street, 
engaged him as managing clerk in his office, this 
position promising more rapid advancement. 
After three months a place opened to him in the 



JAMES DUANE SQUIRES 145 

office of Deane & Chamberlain, 120 Broadway, 
one of the largest and most widely known legal 
firms in New York. It was with this firm that 
effort was made to secure him a clerkship when 
he came to the city and he was promised a place 
as soon as a vacancy occurred. 

In January, 1878, his college classmate and 
friend, Edmund Lyon, of Eochester, came to New 
York to study law, entering, strangely enough as 
had Duane, the office of McDaniel, Lummis & 
Souther. In the fall of the same year he enrolled 
himself as a student in the Columbia Law School 
and went to room with Duane at 77 West Eleventh 
Street. As Duane had overtaxed his eyes by close 
application and study, making it impossible to use 
them steadily at night, Edmund read law to him 
evenings and mornings and " quizzed' ' him at odd 
hours in their daily walks about the city. In May, 
1881, they were both admitted to the bar, and 
shortly afterwards Duane was received as a 
junior member into the firm of Deane & Cham- 
berlain. His advance had been rapid, and with 
his widening influence came positions of honor 
and trust not only in his professional life, but in 
the church and in the denomination. Few young 
men gain as large a place and few have brighter 
prospects than had he at the time of his entering 
into this new legal relationship. In the financial 
crisis of 1884 the firm of Deane & Chamberlain 
was dissolved, and Duane, with two other junior 
members, organized the firm of Thornall, Squires 



146 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

& Constant, which enjoyed growing prosperity. 
On the withdrawal of Mr. Constant some years 
later the firm was changed to Thornall, Squires 
& Pierce. 

On his coming to New York Duane identified 
himself with the Calvary Baptist church, Dr. Bob- 
ert Stuart MacArthur, pastor. Mr. William A. 
Cauldwell was then the superintendent of the 
large and well organized Sunday school. He had 
no superior and few equals as a superintendent. 
During his fourteen years of service Mr. Cauld- 
well had gathered about him a choice band of 
teachers, who held Mm in warm affection, as did 
all the officers and scholars. Because of failing 
health he was obliged to resign in December, 1881, 
and Duane, who had served as assistant super- 
intendent for one year, was chosen as his suc- 
cessor. When he was elected to this responsible 
trust he was only twenty-six years of age. But 
he had already given evidence of his ability as a 
leader and organizer. He was in every way 
singularly qualified for his new and important 
task. His constant aim was to co-operate with 
his pastor and all associated with him in their 
endeavor not only to sustain but to advance the 
interests of the school. On New Year's Day he 
called upon every teacher, by no means a small 
task, as there were sixty-five teachers then active 
in the work. He gave himself from the outset 
without reserve to the Sunday school. He studied 
its needs and made himself familiar with all the 



JAMES DUANE SQUIRES 147 

best methods of deepening the interest and mak- 
ing it fruitful in every good work. The ideal Sun- 
day school to him was "the church at study/ ' and 
by establishing normal and adult classes for Bible 
study he sought to bring the Calvary school up 
to this high ideal. He visited other prosperous 
schools and prepared and introduced an order of 
service which greatly promoted reverence and 
spirituality. He was deeply solicitous about the 
school at the time of the removal of the church 
from Twenty-third street to the new and attrac- 
tive edifice on Fifty-seventh street, but instead 
of a falling off in numbers or a diminution of 
interest, as had been feared, there was notable 
advance in all departments. In the new and well 
appointed chapel the school, under his supervi- 
sion, grew to have the largest enrollment in its 
history. 

But numerous and insistent as the demands 
were upon him as superintendent his Sunday 
school interest was not confined to the Calvary 
school. The Memorial Baptist church in Cortland 
is the outgrowth of a Sunday school which had 
its inception and inspiration largely from his let- 
ters and visits to his former home. At his ear- 
nest suggestion cottage prayer-meetings were 
first held in a new and rapidly growing section 
of the city, then a canvass was made for a Sunday 
school, resulting in the attendance of 115 the first 
Sunday. From the first the blessing of God 
rested on the new enterprise. The work had a 



148 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

steady, healthy growth, requiring the building of 
a commodious chapel a year and a half later, at 
an outlay of $2500. This attractive chapel was 
erected upon a lot formerly owned by Duane, situ- 
ated at the corner of Duane and Tompkins 
Streets. He had great joy in all the early de- 
velopment of the work but was not permitted to 
see the school housed in the new building. At the 
dedication it was my privilege to have a share in 
the exercises and to make the announcement that 
the $1000 which Duane had left to me by his will 
should be appropriated to the cost of the chapel, 
in harmony with his subsequent request that so 
much of the amount as in my judgment seemed 
best should be devoted to the chapel. In appreci- 
ation of his deep interest and helpful encourage- 
ment to the very last the friends in great sponta- 
neity and affection largely consecrated the chapel 
as a memorial to him. The large handsome 
Gothic window in the front is a memorial gift 
toward which all contributed and bears this 
inscription : 

In Memory of 

JAMES DUANE SQUIKES 

Born, Feb. 8, 1855 Baptized, Nov. 14, 1868 

Died, Sept. 12, 1893 

CHEIST HIS LIFE 

In 1896 the Memorial church was organized 
from this devoted company of Sunday school 
workers and has since been rendering a valuable 



JAMES DUANE SQUIRES 149 

and aggressive service in this growing section of 
the city. 

During the period, while the Calvary school 
was making large demands npon his thought, 
strength and sympathy, never grudgingly given, 
for he loved the school as he loved his life, he 
gave much energy and time to denominational 
movements in and out of the city, in the progress 
of which he had a keen interest. He was one of 
the managers of the Baptist City Mission Society 
and was actively identified with the work of the 
State Missionary Convention. He served as 
treasurer of the Baptist Social Union and as sec 
retary of the New York Alumni Association of 
the University of Eochester. He was also a mem- 
ber of the University Club of the city. 

Intellectually, Duane possessed rare versatility, 
keen perception, and unusual rapidity of decision. 
He loved fun and pleasure, but he loved books, 
pictures and music more. He was ambitious as 
a student, not only to excel in his studies, but to 
store his mind with the best things. He was re- 
fined, almost fastidious in taste. Inartistic decora- 
tion or arrangement as well as want of harmony 
in color caused him positive distress. He reveled 
in the best in literature and found great delight 
in the famous statuary and celebrated paintings 
to be seen in the great galleries of Europe. He 
had a peculiar fondness for etchings and had 
gathered quite a collection of some of the best 
things of the old and new schools. He had also 



150 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

begun a collection of autographs and of letters of 
authors and of the world's great leaders, to the 
examination of which he had given considerable 
attention and study. Music had a singular charm 
for him, almost an enrapturing influence. As the 
cords respond to the most delicate touch so 
readily would his emotions respond to sad or joy- 
ous strains. This susceptibility gives some indi- 
cation of his sensitive and impressionable nature. 
In one environment every spring of his being was 
full of joy and exhilaration, and in another there 
would be only feeble or indifferent response. He 
shrank from contact with those who indulged in 
passion, heated controversy and harsh or vulgar 
speech. 

United in him was a singular mixture of the 
sentimental and poetical with the practical. There 
was also a large element of the mystical in his 
nature. He loved in certain moods to stroll away 
alone over the hills and into the woods where he 
might commune undisturbed with his imagination 
or dwell for a time in a realm peopled with gentle 
and congenial spirits. There seemed to come to 
him moments of ecstasy or rapture when his 
spiritual apprehension was very keen and when his 
sense of the Infinite Presence was very real and 
near. In the broad expanse of ocean, in the tower- 
ing mountains, and in all the wonders of nature, 
he found an exaltation and a manifestation of 
power that filled his soul with adoration and wor- 
ship. Books like Augustine's "Confessions," 



JAMES DUANE SQUIRES 151 

a Kempis' "Imitation of Christ," and Phelps's 
" Still Hour" were his daily companions and in 
them in times of depression or sorrow he found 
great consolation and spiritual refreshment. 

Physically Duane was sinewy, quick of motion, 
full of energy and nerve, but never robust. With 
the exception, however, of a severe illness from 
pneumonia, when he was only seven, he was al- 
most never sick. He was full of vivacity of spirit, 
yet he knew his limitations and paid particular 
attention to the care of his body. He loved all 
kinds of games and athletic contests, and gen- 
erally excelled in his sports as in everything he 
undertook. As a runner he was very fleet, few 
being able to outstrip him in a fifty-yard dash. His 
fondness for travel amounted almost to a passion. 
To be going was the very acme of living. For 
one in his early prime he had traveled extensively, 
thereby adding much to his enjoyment as well as 
to his knowledge of customs and peoples. He 
visited Europe three times, journeying not only 
to the points usually visited, but through Norway 
and Sweden, to the North Cape and through Eus- 
sia, to Moscow. In his own country he traversed 
the vast stretches from Nova Scotia to Alaska, 
and from Florida to California. While abroad 
he gratified his taste for art and architecture by 
gathering a collection of photographs, etchings 
and curios. He contributed letters of travel to 
The Christian Inquirer, The Examiner and The 
Christian Union which attracted wide attention 



152 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

and gave him high rank among the best news- 
paper correspondents. 

Duane had an engaging manner. His energy 
and versatility, his passion for activity, his com- 
plete self-mastery, his extremely courteous and 
gentlemanly bearing combined to make him a win- 
some and unique personality. He was gifted as 
a conversationist, was graceful and fluent as a 
writer, and was a forceful and magnetic speaker. 

"He was a gentleman from sole to crown 
Clean favored and imperially alive 
And he was always quietly arrayed 
And he was human when he talked. 
But still he fluttered pulses when he said : 
Good morning ! And glittered when he walked. ' ' 

He was very fond of children and always enjoyed 
their pranks and sayings. Nothing gave him 
greater pleasure than to be able to minister to 
their happiness or to have a share in their "good 
times." He was always very attentive, thought- 
ful and considerate, especially of those feeble in 
strength and burdened with years as he was of 
those who found life full of toil and hardship. 
Nothing enlisted him quite so fully as the en- 
deavor to make the way smoother and the burden 
lighter for the weary and the oppressed. 

When success was crowning his efforts and 
bright prospects were opening before him he was 
joined in marriage to Miss Alice Stewart Macin- 
tosh, on February 3, 1887. He had known her 



JAMES DUANE SQUIRES 153 

as a member of the Calvary church and a faithful 
and beloved teacher in the Sunday school. Be- 
fined, cultured, beautiful, she was much admired 
and loved by their large circle of friends. Their 
happy married life was scarcely more than begun 
when it was sadly terminated by her sudden death 
oil the fourth of the following December. This 
crushing blow called forth a remarkable expres- 
sion of tender sympathy for the stricken husband 
and brought close about him the comforting 
presence and help of many true and tried friends. 
Through it all he bore himself with a heroism that 
was only born of a trustful and loyal faith, as 

1 'One who never turned his back but marched breast 

forward, 
Never doubted clouds would break, 
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, 

Wrong would triumph. 
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 

Sleep to Wake." 

True and brave and soldierlike as he was he 
never afterward was the same. He sought relief 
in change, in travel and in the companionship of 
his friends, but nothing could completely dispel 
the cloud of sorrow that hung over his heart and 
home. In the summer of 1891 he formed one of 
our family party in our journey to the Yellow- 
stone, to the Pacific Coast and northward to 
Alaska itself. New scenes, new interests, the 
pleasure of traveling seemed to revive his old-time 



154 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

enthusiasm. He was so full of brightness and 
cheer that we had the feeling that nothing we 
could have done for him would have given him 
quite so much pleasure as this trans-continental 
trip. 

On his return to New York, when overtaxed 
with work and many cares, he took a severe cold 
that developed into pneumonia. He made a brave 
fight and overcame the dread enemy, but his ill- 
ness left his lungs weak and his strength depleted. 
To hasten his recovery he sought the balmy air 
of Lakewood and later of Florida. He spent the 
summer in the Adirondacks and the winter follow- 
ing in the genial sunshine of California. Not find- 
ing the benefit he had anticipated in the mountain 
retreat above Pasadena he started homeward 
early in September in company with his brother, 
Vernon, who had been his close companion and 
comforter during the summer, as he had been in 
the previous summer in the Adirondacks. While 
on their homeward journey, midway between 
Kansas City and Chicago, September 12, 1893, 
Duane was overcome by extreme weakness. Sud- 
denly his strength failed altogether, when the 
spi it made its escape and on triumphal wings 
mounted heavenward to God. 

In the hour when the eager anticipation of soon 
greeting him again was about to be realized it was 
hard to believe that the wires had brought a true 
message. It was hard to think that one who had 
been so full of life and cheer and boundless energy 



JAMES DUANE SQUIRES 155 

had passed out of sight forever. As I tried in 
thought to follow his spirit in its flight upward 
through the skies, another message seemed to 
come back to me: "I have only gone on before, I 
will await your coming." 

"So many worlds, so much to do, 
So little done, such things to be, 
How know I what had need of thee, 
For thou wert strong as thou wert true? 

"The fame is quench 'd that I foresaw, 
The head hath miss 'd an earthly wreath : 
I curse not nature, no, nor death ; 
For nothing is that errs from law. 

"So here shall silence guard thy fame; 
But somewhere, out of human view, 
Whate'er thy hands are set to do 
Is wrought with tumult of acclaim. " 



VII 

HENEY WHITMEE BAENES 

IT is in response to the cherished wish of my 
honored and esteemed friend that I am here 
to-day to share in this service. In attempt- 
ing to speak of my long-time associate in "the 
care of all the churches," I feel that I do not 
speak for myself alone, but for the pastors and 
churches, missionaries and missionary societies, 
home circles and friends in every part of this 
wide State, whose thonght will turn sympathet- 
ically to this place, when they hear of this service, 
and who will share in the deep sense of loss that 
comes so closely home to this commnnity, to this 
noble chnrch and to this stricken family. 

My personal acqnaintance with Henry W. 
Barnes goes back to the time when he was pastor 
at Ogdensburg, New York. He was then widely 
recognized as one of the solid, substantial pastors 
of the State. He was soldierlike in form and bear- 
ing, as I found him afterward to be in courage and 
spirit. A few years later he was appointed dis- 
trict missionary of the new central district. On 
my resignation as secretary of the New York 

156 



HENRY WHITMER BARNES 157 

State Convention in October, 1886, Dr. Barnes 
was chosen as my successor, while the Convention 
advanced me to the presidency. From that time 
we were brought into close and intimate relation- 
ship, and the more intimately I knew him the 
more I learned to appreciate his character, to 
treasure his friendship, and to esteem his Chris- 
tian manhood. 

Dr. Barnes came of sturdy stock. He was born 
of noble parentage. His father was Horace 
Barnes, the eldest son of Joel Barnes, who mi- 
grated from New England in the last decade of 
the eighteenth century to the almost unbroken 
wilderness region of northern Pennsylvania, set- 
tling at Orwell, Bradford county. His mother was 
Polly C. Woodruff, a woman of rare sagacity, in- 
domitable energy and great neighborly helpful- 
ness. The middle one of three children, Dr. 
Barnes was born August 5, 1832. An elder sister 
died more than fifty years ago, and a younger 
brother, Reed A. Barnes, now resides at Owego. 
His paternal grandmother was Ruth Grant, a 
descendant of Priscilla and Matthew Grant, from 
whom also was descended Ulysses S. Grant. On 
his father's side Dr. Barnes, therefore, was a 
descendant of the Grant family in the same gen- 
eration as President Grant. 

With no great stretch of imagination we can 
easily picture that primitive home in the slightly 
broken wilderness, and the privations and hard- 
ships of this little pioneer family in procuring a 



158 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

living and furnishing means for the education of 
the children in a community of strict economy and 
meager advantages. Henry was early put to hard 
tasks, and as a lad he often had to do a man's 
work. But the clearing away of the forest, the 
felling of trees, the cultivating of the virgin fields 
resulted in the upbuilding of rugged manhood, 
heroic courage and masterful energy and self- 
control. 

The story of Dr. Barnes's conversion forms 
one of the most stirring yet pathetic chapters in 
his varied and active life. Because of the un- 
christian and un-Scriptural sentiment prevailing 
widely among our churches fifty years ago that 
children were too young to give serious attention 
to religion or to be received into the fellowship 
of a church, for more than ten years he was left 
to grope his way in the dark, his boyish heart at 
times filled with doubts and fears, and at other 
times almost crushed with the overwhelming 
sense of loneliness and helplessness because of the 
apparent indifference of those who loved him 
most. His father and mother were strict about 
his education and his religious training. As a 
boy he attended the Presbyterian Sunday school, 
and committed to memory the catechism and 
many passages of Scripture. His thoughts were 
first seriously turned to religion when as a lad 
he visited his grandfather, Joel Barnes, who was 
a deacon in the Baptist church at Eome, six miles 
over a rough and hilly road from his home. Again 



HENRY WHITMER BARNES 159 

in his eighth year he was impressed by the death 
of a little playmate, and again by seeing others 
confess Christ. He would have gladly given his 
heart to Jesus at any time during his boyhood if 
anyone had spoken kindly to him and encouraged 
him to follow the Spirit's leadings. Some years 
later he was profoundly stirred when he found 
that his father and mother were attending 
"special meetings," and subsequently by their 
baptism and reception into the church. He then 
determined to make it his first duty to settle the 
question of his salvation. While walking one 
morning in the orchard adjoining the Le Raysville 
Academy, where he was a student, and commun- 
ing with himself, he determined in spite of all his 
doubts and fears to cast himself completely upon 
God's mercy. Suddenly there came an experience 
of great rapture — a light as from heaven shone 
about him, and supreme joy filled his soul. From 
that hour "he knew whom he had believed." He 
spoke of his new-found joy to his cousin, William 
Barnes, with whom he roomed in the Academy, 
and together they instituted meetings among the 
students, and had the joy of leading six into the 
light. Two years later, in the summer of 1852, 
he was baptized and received into the fellowship 
of the church at Rome, of which his father and 
mother had previously become members. 

Despite this almost Pauline experience Dr. 
Barnes told me when recounting the painful 
struggles of those anxious years that mature re- 



160 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

flection and settled judgment had convinced him 
that the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in 
his heart took place on that early childhood Sun- 
day when his little playmate was laid away in the 
silent grave. 

When Dr. Barnes left the Academy he took up 
teaching, but he cherished the secret hope of some 
time entering the ministry. Toward the close of 
his fifth year as a teacher the pastor at East 
Waverly invited him to supply his pulpit. The 
result was that Dr. Barnes returned home with 
the intention of beginning special study to qualify 
him to enter a theological seminary. While study- 
ing at home he also served as principal of the 
school in Warren Center. This was in 1856. Be- 
fore the year closed he supplied the pulpit of the 
Warren Center church for a Sunday. As a result 
the church engaged him to fill the pulpit until they 
were able to secure a pastor. In February, 1857, 
he was ordained as pastor of the Warren Center 
church. There he remained for six years, declar- 
ing the Word with great faithfulness and training 
and establishing the people in truth and 
righteousness. 

In October of the same year he was married to 
Frances M. Camp, of Owego, New York, a woman 
of decided character, of unquestioned sincerity, 
of generous impulses, and of warm attachments. 
On their wedding journey they attended the an- 
nual meeting of the New York State Missionary 
Convention, which met that year in Utica, N. Y. 



HENRY WHITMER BARNES 161 

Converted during special meetings conducted by- 
Jacob Knapp, she was baptized into the fellow- 
ship of the Warren Center church by her husband. 
While at Warren Center two children blessed the 
home, a little boy James, who was taken away at 
the attractive age of eighteen months, and the 
little daughter Anna, who has been graciously 
spared to be an unspeakable comfort to her father. 
Shortly after Dr. Barnes had become pastor of 
the church at Marathon, New York, a crushing 
bereavement came to him and his wife in the death 
of their second little boy when nearly six months 
old. At the time of the death of their little son 
James Mrs. Barnes had a long and severe illness. 
Under the strain of this second sorrow she suf- 
fered a complete nervous breakdown, seriously 
unbalancing her mind. She never thereafter was 
really strong. She entered peacefully into rest 
on April 20, 1906. 

The public ministry of Dr. Barnes covered a 
period of thirty years, embracing pastorates at 
Warren Center, at Killawog and Marathon, at 
Niagara Falls, at Ogdensburg and at Spencer. 
Probably his most notable service was with the 
church at Ogdensburg, where his name is cher- 
ished as a fragrant memory. Under his leader- 
ship the church edifice was practically twice re- 
built, first because of longfelt and greatly needed 
improvements at an outlay of $20,000, and second 
after a fire which left the walls standing and the 
floor and basement intact. Among the many 



162 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

whom lie baptized and welcomed into the fellow- 
ship of the Ogdensburg church was Dr. Wallace 
Buttrick, now secretary of the General Education 
Board, who always held his spiritual father in 
warm affection and esteem. At Niagara Falls Dr. 
Barnes succeeded Henry L. Morehouse, then a 
student supply while in the Eochester Theological 
Seminary. Here he did a large upbuilding work, 
putting the church on a firm financial foundation. 
During his ministry at Spencer 125 persons were 
added to the membership, among them being 1^ 
S. S. Vose, pastor of the Tabernacle church, 
Ithaca, N. Y., and Bev. Ira W. Bingham, now of 
Portage, Wisconsin. 

But eminent as were Dr. Barnes's services in 
the ministry, probably the crowning work of his 
life was done in the twenty-one years of his secre- 
taryship of the New York State Missionary Con- 
vention. Under his leadership the Church Build- 
ing Department was organized, whereby many 
new churches were generously aided and burden- 
some debts were paid. The meetings of the Young 
People's Union and of the women's missionary 
societies were given a place in conjunction with 
those of the State gatherings, largely increasing 
their interest and efficiency. The contributions 
for the work were increased a hundredfold, and 
the number of missionaries were largely increased 
year by year. Dr. Barnes instituted associational 
conferences, for the conduct of which he had 
special aptitude, and which were regarded by 



HENRY WHITMER BARNES 163 

pastors and churches perplexed by local problems 
as occasions of peculiar interest and profit. He 
did a large service in bringing pastorless churches 
and churchless pastors together. He self-sacrific- 
ingly gave himself body, soul and spirit to the 
pastors and churches, thereby greatly widening 
and strengthening the work and endearing him- 
self to all church and missionary circles. 

In addition to his manifold duties as secretary, 
Dr. Barnes contributed with more or less regular- 
ity to The Examiner, The Watchman and The 
Standard. His articles were always of a nature 
to awaken thought and to elicit attention. He 
also was in demand as a speaker at our national 
and other religious gatherings. In recognition of 
his large and significant services the University 
of Rochester conferred upon him in 1903 the de- 
gree of doctor of divinity. 

When Dr. Barnes resigned his duties as secre- 
tary in 1907 he was made associate secretary to 
Rev. C. A. McAlpine, in which capacity he served 
for three years. Failing strength compelled him 
at the ripe age of seventy-eight years to relin- 
quish that position. After that time, choosing 
rather to wear out than to rust out, he carried 
on a helpful correspondence with churches and 
pastors, and frequently supplied vacant pulpits 
in and about Binghamton. 

Dr. Barnes was a man of marked personality, 
a personality all his own. He would be singled 
out in any group of men as possessing notable 



164 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

qualities of leadership. Probably Ms most out- 
standing characteristic was his solidity of char- 
acter. Notable also were his alertness of mind, 
his Christian fortitude, his broad sympathy, his 
laudable ambition and his steadfast loyalty to all 
that was best in religion and in life. The impres- 
sion he made upon everyone was of manifest 
sincerity and genuineness, of singular self-poise 
and of exalted and steadfast purpose. The 
thought that was always uppermost and that 
dominated his conduct and his speech was the 
settled determination to do the will of his Master 
and to render the largest service possible to his 
fellow men. 

Moreover Dr. Barnes was pre-eminently a man 
of prayer. He was given much to prayer, to 
meditation and to the study of God's Word. He 
set apart an hour for prayer in the middle of each 
day which he religiously observed for God's bless- 
ing and guidance to rest upon every effort of the 
Convention and every form of Christian endeavor. 
He read widely and thoughtfully and assimilated 
what he read. He had a well thought out system 
of theology, and took delight in studying the pur- 
poses of God as manifested in his providence and 
in the history of nations and of men. 

Without qualification I may say Dr. Barnes was 
one of the noblest men I have ever met. I saw 
him in almost every variety of relation and posi- 
tion in life. I saw him at home and away from 
home, at work and when work was done, in his 



HENRY WHITMER BARNES* <165 

study and in his garden, in the hour of sore trial 
and in seasons of gladness and rejoicing, in the 
presence of large assemblies and in conference 
with a friend or a group of friends. He was often 
in my home, and frequently I was a guest in his. 
We exchanged letters for more than a quarter of 
a century. He was always the same true, stead- 
fast, unperturbed, unshaken friend because his 
faith reached into the great beyond and took hold 
of the eternal verities. Among my pleasantest 
recollections are the hours we spent together talk- 
ing over the great questions vital to this life and 
the life to come. "He was a good man, full of 
the Holy Ghost and of faith." 

Truly Dr. Barnes was one of God's noblemen. 
He was cast in a large mould. Had he acquired 
in youth the thorough training he so eagerly 
coveted he might have presided over one of our 
great institutions of learning, for he was a born 
teacher, or he might have occupied an eminent 
place in the counsels of the nation. Dr. Barnes 
was one of that sturdy pioneer stock that has 
almost passed away. He was one of those rare 
men of whom Pope sang : 

"Of Soul sincere, 
In action faithful and in honor clear, 
Who broke no promise, served no private end, 
Who gained no title, and who lost no friend.' ' 

My good friend has come to his end at a full 
age, "like a shock of corn cometh in its season." 



166 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

He passed away at his home in this city on 
September 29, 1914. His fourscore and two years 
were filled to the full with loving, self-sacrificing 
service for his fellow men. A cherished desire to 
live to a great age that he might have the satisfac- 
tion of looking back over a long period of time 
and noting the changes wrought in the religious, 
political and industrial world was graciously 
granted to him. And how marvelous these 
changes have been in the past eighty-two years 
and how sympathetically he entered into their 
progressive spirit! 

The churches of this Empire State, the noble 
brotherhood of pastors, this church and a large 
circle of friends have sustained a great loss. We 
shall not look upon his kindly, finely chiseled face 
again. We shall not be heartened again by his 
reassuring words or gladdened by the friendly 
grasp of his hand. But while our good brother 
has finished his earthly course his work and the 
noble impress of his character abide. He will con- 
tinue to live in all the lives that have felt the 
influence of his godly personality, in the churches 
that he so faithfully and conscientiously served, 
and in the strong and wide reaching service that 
he rendered to the small and dependent churches 
throughout the Empire State. He will have the 
immortality that is vouchsafed to the good and 
great in this life. He will continue to live ii 
glory. Freed from the bondage and burden of 
the mortal body, the soul will unfold and develop 



HENRY WHITMER BARNES 167 

and increase with the increased knowledge of 
God. 

"When the good and true depart, 
"What is it more than this ? 
That man who is from God sent forth 
Doth yet again to God return? 
Such ebb and flow must ever be, 
Then wherefore should we mourn?" 



VIII 
CHARLES WESLEY BROOKS 

IN response to the "long cherished wish" of 
our dear friend, and prompted as well by 
love and esteem for him, I have come, as a 
friend with other friends, to pay a brief tribute 
to the noble man who has gone home, and to ex- 
press my sincere sympathy for those who are 
bereaved. 

Returning from a visit to New England I found 
a premonitory letter from the son awaiting me, 
telling of his father's serious illness, of the 
periods of sinking and rallying, of encouragement 
followed by loss of hope. This message came as 
a shock to me for in a letter received before my 
going away in August our friend had given no 
intimation of any material change in health. Then 
shortly after the son's letter came the word that 
the end had come peacefully, and inviting me to 
be present to-day. 

As I journeyed here by train yesterday my 
thoughts were occupied all day with our dear 
brother. As I reviewed the more than thirty 
years of our friendship and fellowship in the 

168 



CHARLES WESLEY BROOKS 169 

service of State mission work many incidents of 
a personal and tender nature came vividly before 
me. Our frequent meetings since the first in- 
troduction in Binghamton in 1878 ; our continued 
correspondence, often daily and as a rule semi- 
weekly or weekly ; our deliberations regarding the 
general interests of our State Convention, or of 
some particular church or pastor, resting then 
as a special burden upon his mind and heart ; or 
the needs of Cook Academy and the progress of 
the endowment movement — all of these were re- 
called and lived over again. His hearty and cheer- 
ing words, his cordial handshake, his warm and 
sympathetic personality, his high purpose, his en- 
thusiastic spirit, his extreme care and cautious 
regard for the feelings of others, and his eager- 
ness always to do Christ's will — all these things 
passed vividly before me as in the days of 
frequent fellowship and friendly intercourse. It 
seemed impossible to realize that he had gone 
from us forever. It rather seemed to me that I 
must be traveling to meet him, that he would wel- 
come me as I stepped off the train, and in his 
cordial and hospitable manner conduct me to his 
home where the best he had was provided for me, 
while we conferred together upon State Conven- 
tion or Cook Academy matters. 

The story of Mr. Brooks 's life is brief and sim- 
ple, like that of the majority of men in the minis- 
try, spending itself that others may live a larger 
and richer life. It can all be told in a few words. 



170 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

Born in Solon, New York, in 1836; baptized at 
East Pharsalia in 1852; ordained at Triangle in 
1862; pastor at Killawog, Triangle, and East 
Cameron and Woodhull, 1862-1869; district mis- 
sionary of the Baptist Missionary Convention of 
the State of New York, 1869-1910. 

That is all, and yet it is not all. That is only 
the faint outline sketch, the crayon drawing. The 
colors must be filled in, the light and shadows 
must be distributed in right proportions if the 
picture is to glow and live and be in any real sense 
a true likeness of the original. 

In his early Christian home and in the noble 
character of his father and mother we find the 
groundwork of Mr. Brooks's earnest Christian 
manhood and the inspiration for his active 
evangelical endeavor. His father and mother, 
Samuel and Dorothy Leonard Brooks, were faith- 
ful and devoted members of the Baptist church 
in Solon, of which the father served as deacon for 
many years. They were Christians of the old 
type. They loved God's Word; they maintained 
family worship; they regarded the Sabbath and 
kept it holy. We are not surprised that the son 
was named Charles Wesley, an outstanding name 
in religious history, that he sought and found 
Christ as his Saviour at the age of fourteen, or 
that he had it borne in upon him soon afterward 
that he should give himself to the Gospel minis- 
try. His baptism subsequently, in August, 1852, 
in the small mission church at East Pharsalia, by 



CHARLES WESLEY BROOKS 171 

the missionary pastor, Rev. Lewis Lawton, had a 
deeper and more determining influence npon the 
special form of service he was to render than he 
or any of his friends conld foresee. 

Mr. Brooks's inflexibility of purpose, which was 
one of the basal traits of his character, was mani- 
fested in his eager efforts to secure an education. 
He began the study of Latin, Greek and Algebra 
without a teacher, at odd times while working on 
a farm. After attaining the age of eighteen he 
was able by hard work in summer and by teaching 
in winter to get a few months each year in the 
high school and at Norwich Academy, until he 
completed his last term four years later. Finding 
it impossible to realize his hope of going to college 
he considered the question of entering at once 
upon the work of the ministry, and was licensed 
to preach on July 10, 1859. His ordination took 
place three years later in confirmation of his hav- 
ing given good proof of his ministry. 

After ten years of pastoral work, in which he 
served three churches, he was, as he believed, 
divinely called to the responsible duties of district 
missionary of the State Missionary Convention, 
and was duly commissioned on March 2, 1869. In 
order that he might be located at a central point 
of his field he moved to Watkins, and in connec- 
tion with his new duties assumed the pastoral care 
of this church, which was then in a weak and dis- 
heartened condition. Five years later, when the 
church had become self-supporting, he resigned 



172 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

the pastorate in order to devote his whole time 
and energies to the State Convention — a work in 
which he firmly believed and to whose support he 
gave himself unreservedly, soul and mind and 
strength until October, 1910. He laid it down then 
only because he felt that he must seek release 
from his burdensome cares and secure the rest 
and freedom from responsibility to which his long 
years of faithful and fruitful service entitled him. 

Mr. Brooks's active ministerial life embraced 
more than half a century, in the most important 
period of all the centuries in the world's develop- 
ment. It was a century specially notable in 
Baptist annals for the rise and remarkable 
growth of our great educational, church and mis- 
sionary interests. In the last fifty years a man's 
life counted more for the service of God and his 
f ellowmen than in any similar period since Christ 
came. 

What a privilege to have lived in this time, and 
what a glorious record is his! Fifty years of 
preaching the Gospel of the blessed Lord ! Fifty 
years of winning souls to Christ and of teaching 
and training them in the way of life ! Fifty years 
of founding churches and Sunday schools, of 
counseling and advising pastors and aiding in 
their settlement, of conducting and assisting in 
evangelistic meetings, of gathering scattered 
members and of uniting and inspiring divided and 
discouraged churches ! Fifty years of presenting 
the Convention work at the associations, of visit- 



CHARLES WESLEY BROOKS 173 

ing churches and prayer meetings! Fifty years 
of traveling over the State, of being away from 
home, of weariness, loneliness and utter discom- 
fort! Yet fifty years of making the life count 
for the most in the home, of helping boys and 
girls to make something of themselves, of visiting 
the sick, of comforting the sorrowing, of follow- 
ing dear friends to their last resting place ! Who 
can sum up what it has all cost of self-sacrifice, 
nervous strain, heartache and wear and tear on 
body, mind and strength! 

We give great honor, and rightly too, to a pas- 
tor who has served one church for forty or fifty 
years. A pastorate of that length is a rare thing 
in our Baptist history. We do right to make 
much of it, to give large space to it in our de- 
nominational papers, and to honor with tributes 
and gifts the man who has given his life to one 
people. But after ten years in the pastorate our 
friend was for more than forty years district mis- 
sionary of the Missionary Convention of this 
great Empire State. Like the great Apostle he 
had "the care of all the churches.' ' He was pas- 
tor of pastors. He was overseer; bishop of a 
large diocese. Like Paul, too, he was "in weari- 
ness and painfulness, in watchings often, in 
hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and 
nakedness." Only eternity will reveal what fifty 
years of such faithful and devoted services as 
Mr. Brooks rendered can mean to humanity, to 
the Baptists in this State and to God. 



174 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

At the annual meeting of the State Convention 
held in Eochester in 1894, the annual report of 
the board, submitted by the secretary, Bev. Dr. H. 
W. Barnes, contained a summary of Mr. Brooks's 
labors as district missionary for twenty years. 
This summary showed that Mr. Brooks was the 
only district missionary up to that time whose 
services covered all that period. On entering 
upon his missionary duties Mr. Brooks's first 
work was to hold evangelistic services in 
Rochester, with what was then the Lake avenue 
mission. There were but two organized English- 
speaking Baptist churches in the city at that time 
with a membership of 1279. Eochester has now 
ten English-speaking Baptist churches with a 
total membership of 4464. Dr. Barnes further 
reported: " During the early years of his work 
Mr. Brooks was corresponding secretary for his 
district, and during some of the time acting corre- 
sponding secretary and general manager for the 
whole State. He was evangelist and general care- 
taker on his field. No man ever rendered more 
devoted, earnest, prayerful or valuable service in 
such a position than he, and he endeared himself 
to thousands in his work. He assisted or presided 
at the organization of the churches at Moravia, 
Canisteo, Addison, Genoa, and Bloods in New 
York ; and Coudersport, Eoulette, Oswayo, Sabins- 
ville and Sayre in Pennsylvania, which afterward 
became connected with Pennsylvania Associa- 
tions. He was measurably instrumental in the 



CHARLES WESLEY BROOKS 175 

restoration of the Wolcott and Lyons churches, 
and apparently under the blessing of God saved 
many others from dying. For the first twenty 
years of his connection with the Convention he 
served at 672 stations, preached 4805 sermons, 
attended 5650 prayer meetings, made 7042 re- 
ligious visits, and baptized 762 converts." 

The " Appreciation' ' adopted by the Mission- 
ary Convention at its meeting at Schenectady last 
October, is so discriminating and comprehensive, 
and altogether fust and true, that it deserves a 
place in any tribute to his life. The appreciation 
reads as follows: 

In the retirement from the district missionaryship of 
Rev. Charles Wesley Brooks we lost from our active 
force one of our best known and most valued workers. 
Receiving his appointment in 1869, his service covers a 
period of over forty years. In all that time he has lived 
among us a life of singular grace and beauty. He has 
been modest and self-sacrificing in spirit and equally 
quiet, painstaking and faithful in his method of work. 
His purity of character has commanded the admiration, 
and his gentleness of spirit has enlisted the affection of 
all. In addition to his faithful service as a missionary 
he has been the historian of the Convention, and has 
thus multiplied our obligations to him. The Convention 
desires to express the profound gratitude that God has 
spared to it for so long a time this good man — as eminent 
in character as he has been in service. 

In the year 1894 Mr. Brooks was laid aside by 
a severe attack of the grip. While he was re- 
cuperating at Clifton Springs I stopped to see 
him on my way to the State Convention meetings 



176 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

in Eochester, in October. To cheer him and to 
arouse him from his depression, which was very- 
marked, my suggestion to him was that he take 
upon himself the task of revising and amplifying 
the series of articles he had written for The In- 
quirer on " Baptist Beginnings," and publish 
them in book form, a much needed work, as there 
was no adequate history of the Baptists of New 
York State. This idea seemed to give him a new 
hold on life. He threw himself into his new under- 
taking with his usual enthusiasm. After much 
research and painstaking labor he published in 
1900 a history of the State Convention, under the 
title A Century of Missions in the Empire State. 
In addition to his abundant labors as district mis- 
sionary, as was more than hinted in the " Appre- 
ciation,' ' he was the historian of the Convention. 

The book was creditable to himself and to the 
subject. It will keep him in remembrance for 
generations. The first edition was soon sold and 
1000 copies more were published. In 1907, the 
one hundredth anniversary of the Convention, a 
second edition bringing the history down to that 
date, was published. It has had interested readers 
round the world. By men qualified to speak this 
book has been pronounced almost unique among 
histories of State Conventions. It has a vitality 
and a readableness that seem to belong to no other 
book of its kind. 

Another interest that had a large place in Mr. 
Brooks's heart was Cook Academy. He had the 



CHARLES WESLEY BROOKS 177 

confidence of Colonel Cook, shared in his counsels 
and was from the first a member of the board of 
trustees, and for many years chairman of the 
executive committee. Probably it was his deep 
interest and strenuous advocacy, more than any- 
thing else, that saved the institution in several 
crises of its history and won to it the substantial 
support of some of its best friends. His constant 
prayer was that God might save the Academy to 
New York Baptists. It was Mr. Brooks who se- 
cured its largest endowment gift. More than any- 
body else he was instrumental in holding to the 
Academy the cooperation and endorsement of the 
State ^Missionary Convention. His name will al- 
ways be accorded a high place in the annals of 
Cook Academy. 

Mr. Brooks was not primarily a preacher or 
pastor. He was first and last an evangelist. He 
had a large heart glowing with love for souls, 
and he would not be satisfied with anything short 
of winning men to Christ. He was willing to make 
any sacrifice to that end. He literally abandoned 
himself to his work. He was ready to respond 
to any service. He did not know what it was to 
shrink from duty. No church was so torn by dis- 
sensions or scattered by neglect that he did not 
yearn to save it. No man had wandered so far 
away, but he longed to bring him back. He re- 
joiced greatly when he found his spiritual children 
walking in the truth. 

His cup of blessing was full to overflowing when 



178 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

two sons, Charles and Willis, gave themselves to 
the Gospel ministry. Although he had walked 
through "the valley of the shadow' ' many times 
no sorrow was quite like the sorrow he felt when 
he surrendered his son Willis to the summons of 
the Master a few years later. He found consola- 
tion and comfort, however, as the months went 
by in the knowledge that one son and a beloved 
son-in-law would carry on, after he was gone, the 
blessed work to which he had given his life. 

Mr. Brooks was a loyal friend. He early 
learned the great law, if one is to have friends 
he must show himself friendly. In his heart he 
cherished only the kindest feelings for his 
brethren, neighbors and friends. Alert, enthusi- 
astic, responsive, he was sensitive, easily exalted 
and as easily depressed, indicative of his noble- 
ness of nature. He was ever ready to show to 
others the same spirit of kindness and friendli- 
ness which he wished manifested toward himself. 
He was warmhearted, social, sincere and open. 
He loved his fellowmen and was in turn loved by 
them. He loved this community in which he spent 
the best years of his life. He loved this church to 
which he ministered as pastor, and in which for 
many long years he was a devoted member. He 
loved his home, and in the narrow circle of those 
who were dearer to him than his life he found 
inspiration, courage and strength for any task. 

If I may venture to say a few words to the dear 
friends, the widow, the sister, the sons and daugh- 



CHARLES WESLEY BROOKS 179 

ters and grandchildren who ministered to him so 
tenderly and lovingly in his last illness and who 
feel this bereavement most keenly it wonld be 
these : You have this certainty that this life has 
not gone out. Our sorrow is not as those without 
hope. We know if Christ be not risen from the 
dead then is our faith vain and we are yet in our 
sins. But now is Christ risen from the grave and 
become the first fruits of those that slept and 
afterward those that are Christ's at his coming. 
When Dr. Hague passed away our beloved Dr. 
Smith, author of America, wrote a sweet little 
poem, one verse of which was : 

"We weep as one by one we lay 

Our friends with the garnered host, 
But gratefully the ages say 
No saintly life was ever lost." 

This place is full of the fragrance of the life 
of our dear brother. He lives in the churches in 
which he has preached and with which he has 
labored. He lives in the hearts of his friends and 
brother ministers by whom he is honored and be- 
loved all over this Empire State and wherever his 
name is known. He will continue to live in earnest 
words, noble example and exalted life and 
character. 

He was ready and eager to go — "to depart and 
be with Christ which is far better. ' ' His last mes- 
sage to the Chemung River Association at its 
meeting in Corning this week was this word of 



180 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

triumph: "Tell the brethren not to hold me on 
earth by their prayers.' ' 

As we turn on this beautiful autumn afternoon 
from earthly scenes and follow the flight of his 
spirit into the heavens and through the pearly 
gates we can almost hear the echo of the words 
of welcome that must have fallen like music upon 
his ear: "Well done, good and faithful servant, 
enter thou into the joys of thy Lord." May we 
all so live that we may also be accounted faithful, 
so that an entrance shall be ministered to us 
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 



IX 
LEMUEL MOSS 

MY recollection of Dr. Moss goes back to 
the great Bible Convention at Saratoga 
on May 22, 1883. The question of Bible 
translation had been a burning one for more than 
a third of a century. In April, 1882, a meeting 
of representative pastors and laymen interested 
in seeking a solution of this long controverted 
question was held in the Calvary church, New 
York. There was animated discussion and resolu- 
tions bearing on different phases of the question 
were adopted. Finally the whole subject was re- 
ferred to a committee of nine, consisting of W. 
W. Everts, Alvah Hovey, Thomas Armitage, 
Lemuel Moss, H. M. King, Ebenezer Dodge, S. W. 
Duncan, J. W. Sarles and E. B. Williams. At the 
Anniversaries held in the First church, New York, 
the May following, the evident demand was for a 
speedy settlement of this disturbing and divisive 
issue. Many leading pastors and laymen had the 
feeling that the controversy had waged long 
enough and later joined in a petition that a Con- 
vention be called to settle the question of Bible 

181 



182 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

translation and distribution. The Convention was 
held in the First Baptist Church, Saratoga 
Springs, N. Y., in May, 1883. The gathering of 
delegates appointed by the several State Conven- 
tions, comprising the foremost men of our de- 
nomination, was a notable one. The interest was 
very intense and wide-spread, and the feeling of 
expectancy was not unlike that which dominated 
the great denominational meeting in Buffalo in 
the spring of 1903, when the Committee of Fifteen 
submitted its report. The central figure at 
Saratoga, as at Buffalo, was Dr. Lemuel Moss. 
The large auditorium was crowded. Everyone 
was eager to hear every speaker, and to follow 
the discussion to the end. Drs. J. B. Thomas, W. 
W. Everts, Thomas Armitage, W. B. Griffith, 
Edward Bright, George C. Lorimer, P. S. Henson 
and others, had participated in the heated debate, 
which continued through two days. Feeling had 
risen to fever heat. Dr. Moss was looked upon as 
the leader of the movement to commit all the work 
of Bible translation and distribution to the Pub- 
lication Society. What he had to say would have 
great weight in turning the scale to his side. I 
remember just how he looked when he stepped 
upon the platform and recall the whole scene of 
that notable day for Baptists in this country. 
Every eye was centered upon the speaker, and 
every ear was strained to catch every word. 
Thrills of emotion and enthusiasm swept over the 
vast audience again and again, as Dr. Moss 



LEMUEL MOSS 183 

proceeded with his argument. When he finished 
he was greeted with tumultous applause. His ad- 
dress was one of great impressiveness and power. 
Yet how simple and translucent it was. He op- 
posed a separate Bible Society because it was (1) 
unnecessary, (2) it would be a source of division, 
and (3) it would be a source of disunion. As Dr. 
Moss spoke, it seemed to me that he measured 
up in considerable degree to Dr. Anderson, my 
ideal of a public leader, the greatest and most 
inspiring speaker I had ever known. The Con- 
vention by vote sustained with great unanimity 
the position advocated by Dr. Moss. 

Before the meetings of the Convention ad- 
journed, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Moss, 
but I had no thought then that our pathways 
would ever cross again, or that I should be thrown 
into so close personal relationship with him as 
during the three closing years of his life. Dr. 
Moss was at the time of the Saratoga Convention 
the President of the Indiana University, and 
probably exerting his widest influence as a 
teacher. Shortly afterward he went to Minneap- 
olis, where he was for five years (1885-1890), 
the editor of a newly established paper, known 
as the Ensign. He made it a bright, breezy, read- 
able sheet which was regarded in The Examiner 
office as one of our ablest exchanges. He was for 
four years (1868-1872), prior to being chosen 
President of the Indiana University, editor of the 
National Baptist. Subsequently on returning 



184 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

from the West to Philadelphia he was for a time 
editor of the Commonwealth, established after the 
National Baptist had been incorporated in The 
Examiner. Shortly after coming to New York he 
became a regular contributor to the editorial and 
literary columns of The Examiner, He was also 
the New York correspondent for The Watchman, 
During all his public life he was a frequent con- 
tributor to the secular and religious press. 

It was not until Dr. Moss came to New York 
that I knew him at all intimately. But during the 
three years that he contributed to The Examiner 
I saw him, as a rule, three times a week and often 
daily, and was drawn closely to him by his large, 
generous nature, his spirit of helpfulness and 
cheerfulness, his timely words of counsel, and his 
unswerving faith. He had grown mellow and ripe 
in the sunshine of God's redeeming grace and 
love. Dr. Moss was an eloquent preacher, he was 
an inspiring teacher, he was an interesting and 
instructive lecturer, but he was foreordained to 
be an editor. 

I think it is not too much to say that in the 
twelve years which he devoted to religious jour- 
nalism of the forty-four of his notable life, he 
made a deeper and more lasting impression upon 
his time, and did a larger work for the cause of 
truth and righteousness than he did in any other 
line of work in the same period, or possibly in 
the whole of his life put together. It was cer- 
tainly true if we take into account the opportuni- 



LEMUEL MOSS 185 

ties his editorial relationship afforded for attend- 
ing the State and National Anniversaries and 
for shaping our denominational polity and life. 

He was singularly qualified, both by inheritance 
and by training for the editorial conduct of a 
paper. Like Dr. Bright, he was a printer by 
trade. He knew all about the mechanical make-up 
of a paper from the setting of the type to its 
issuance from the press. He could write, set up, 
and print his own paper, so thorough was his 
knowledge of every detail of the work. He had 
rare persistency and power of application. He 
was a born leader of men. 

Then he had marked business ability. This was 
manifest very early in his career, otherwise he 
could not have fitted himself for college and main- 
tained in part himself, his wife, and child while 
pursuing his college and seminary studies. When 
at the close of the war he was superintending the 
publishing of the report of the U. S. Christian 
Commission of which he was Secretary, the head 
of the publishing house said to him, "If, when 
through with this work, you will come with us as 
manager, we will give you $10,000 a year." 

To these basal, fundamental qualities, which 
are all important if there is to be a solid and 
abiding superstructure, there were added editorial 
and literary qualifications of the highest order, 
good judgment, keen perception, broad scholar- 
ship and commanding leadership. 

Dr. Moss was a man of convictions and he had 



186 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

the courage of his convictions. He believed and, 
therefore, spoke. He was a Baptist from convic- 
tion, and the great and distinctive truths for 
which Baptists stand always had in him an able 
and earnest advocate. His voice never gave an 
uncertain sound, nor did his pen make a false 
stroke. He was not sectarian in a narrow and 
bigoted sense, but he was ever loyal to his de- 
nominational principles, because he believed that 
the Baptist position conformed more closely to 
the teachings of Scripture than those of any other 
Christian body. He did not like controversy, but 
if the fight was on he wanted a hand in it, and 
wanted to turn it to some advantageous account. 

He never needed the admonition "the business 
of the leader is to lead. ' ' He was master of what- 
ever he undertook. He put the whole strength of 
his character and ability into the structure of his 
paper. He was glad to listen to counsel, but he 
allowed no one else to dictate the policy of his 
paper when he was editor. He told me of an ex- 
perience he had once when he was editor of The 
National Baptist in Philadelphia. He had ex- 
pressed his judgment in regard to certain articles, 
but his judgment was overruled. The owners of 
the paper felt it would be to their interests to 
have the articles published, and sent him word to 
that effect. He said: "My resignation was on the 
table in fifteen minutes. ' ' The matter was patched 
up and he was never interfered with afterwards. 

Dr. Moss was in a large sense an " all-round' 9 



LEMUEL MOSS 187 

man. He was not a man of one idea. He did not 
belong to that large class to whom Pope's words 
apply: 

''One science only will one genius fit 
So vast is art, so narrow human wit. ' ' 

He had many sides, and they were all remarkably 
developed. Few men attain eminence in so many 
directions as did he. If I may use the figure he 
was not like a triangle touching life only on three 
sides, nor a square with only four sides, but he 
was rather like a sphere with infinite points of 
contact, sympathetic with life in all its phases, 
and qualified to discuss questions most complex 
and profound. He was a scholar in the largest 
and broadest sense of that term. He loved his 
books to the very end. They were always standard 
works by the best authors and covered a wide 
range of subjects. 

He would come to the office time and again to 
talk over a book he had just read, or to take home 
one obtained for him, when any other man would 
not have thought it prudent to venture out. Fear- 
ing he might meet with some accident I often went 
down to the street with him and conducted him 
safely to the car or over the crowded thorough- 
fare. When I spoke with his daughter about the 
danger of his coming downtown when his health 
was so precarious, she said she believed that her 
"father would die if he were kept away from his 
papers and his books." 



188 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

Dr. Moss had marked ability as a terse and 
vigorous writer. He was full of wit and anecdote. 
He was a keen observer of human nature. He 
enjoyed telling of interesting sights he had wit- 
nessed on his walks about the city, illustrating 
the spirit of true heroism or of unselfishness, or 
of sweet and beautiful generosity and charity on 
the part of some humble man or woman. Nothing 
escaped his attention. Everything had in it for 
him some useful lesson. 

He loved all men, especially his brethren. He 
was a brave man. Many of his friends know how 
brave and cheerful he was in the midst of his 
trials and under his heavy burdens. For the last 
ten years he never was able to sleep more than 
an hour to an hour and a half at a time. Much 
of his work during these last years was done 
under acute physical suffering, yet how seldom 
did he complain, how little did anyone know of 
his bodily ailments. 

With all his superior ability and attainments, 
Dr. Moss was an extremely modest man. He was 
not full of himself. He was not all the time talk- 
ing of his plans and of what he had accomplished, 
or could do if he had the opportunity. He 
possessed to a remarkable degree that beautiful 
grace of humility which is to the character what 
the blush is to the peach or the bloom to the grape. 
Yet he was not lost in his work. He was always 
a master figure and stood out in bold outline. 
I can almost hear his quiet, characteristic, gentle 



LEMUEL MOSS 189 

"I don't know," when asked to do any unusual 
service, and yet what he was asked to do was al- 
ways done and well done, and his spirit was al- 
ways that of willingness to do more. 

It seems hardly necessary to affirm of such a 
man that he was a Christian and that the spirit 
of Christ breathed through all that he wrote and 
said and did. The love of Christ filled his heart, 
impelled his action and irradiated his life. The 
mainspring of his life was love — love to God and 
love to his f ellowmen. He lived as if his constant 
prayer was: 

"0 grant that nothing in my soul 

May dwell, but Thy pure love alone; 

may Thy love possess me whole, 
My joy, my treasure, and my crown ; 

Strange fires far from my soul remove, 
My every act, word, thought, be love. ' ' 

He walked in close fellowship and communion 
with God and was conscious of his sustaining 
power and comforting presence at all times and 
everywhere. Among my most precious memories 
of him are the times when he opened up his heart 
to me about God's beneficent guidance and 
presence in all the minute affairs of his life. He 
had unfailing faith in the onward progress of 
God's kingdom in the world and in the ultimate 
triumph of truth and righteousness. He knew 
whom he had believed and he knew that He would 
keep that which he had committed to Him against 
that day. 



190 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

He loved God's word. He was an earnest 
student of it and hailed with joy any new light 
that could be thrown upon it, bnt he wanted to 
be sure it was light and not a gleam from some 
falling meteor or dazzling searchlight. He stood 
securely and firmly on the "Bock of Ages," and 
was unmoved by any wind of "higher criticism' ' 
that blew. He had great faith in men. He saw 
the best of them and appealed to the best. He 
did not deal in negatives. His desire to help men 
furnished all the ideals for which he toiled and 
struggled. No one was more conscious of his im- 
perfections and failings than he and yet his suffi- 
ciency was in Christ. He himself was nothing; 
Christ was everything. To Christ belonged all 
the glory for all that he did. Daily contact with 
such a sweet gentle Christian spirit was an in- 
spiration and a benediction. 

So he lived through more than forty-four years ; 
not as a recluse, not selfishly for himself, but 
self-sacrificingly for his fellowmen; not among 
the stragglers and camp followers at the rear, but 
in the forefront of the battle and in the thick of 
the fight. He filled a large place and those who 
knew him best will miss him the most. 

Dr. Moss was a member of the illustrious class 
of '58 of the University of Eochester — one of the 
most famous that has ever gone out from that 
institution. It is quite remarkable that two of his 
classmates, Dr. H. L. Morehouse and Dr. H. C. 
Townley, should have been present and spoken 



LEMUEL MOSS ' 191 

of their old time collegemate and friend to-day. 
Among the most precious memories and associa- 
tions of life are those of college days. .The re- 
union of classmates and alumni is most enjoyable 
and delightful. No one prized these relations and 
fellowships or did more to promote them than the 
friend whose memory we honor this morning. 

But more precious and enduring than these 
college ties to him were the fellowship and re- 
union of the ministers of the Gospel of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. The ranks of this noble company 
are often and irreparably broken. How sadly at 
this time no one better than the members compos- 
ing this Conference know. The places of two of 
the foremost leaders, Dr. Moss and Dr. Lorimer, 
are now vacant, yet if we possess their faith and 
spirit our fellowship and communion with them 
may remain precious and unbroken until we shall 
greet them again beyond the skies, where 

"Perfect love and friendship reign 
Through all Eternity/ ' 



THOMAS OAKES CONANT 

RAEELY have the words: "In the midst of 
life we are in death,' ' been borne in upon 
me with more impressive force than in 
the sudden passing on of my long-time associate 
and friend, Thomas 0. Conant. He was at the 
office on Wednesday, January 28, 1914, apparently 
in his usual health and in fine spirits. After chat- 
ting about several matters relating to local 
religious and church interests, he left to take 
luncheon with his daughter, who, he told me, with 
a noticeable feeling of joy and gratitude in his 
expression, had sufficiently recovered to come to 
the table after a serious and debilitating attack 
of influenza. As was his custom he remained at 
home Thursday writing and reading. In the late 
afternoon he went out for a walk and incidentally 
to mail some letters and to get an evening paper. 
Suddenly his walk terminated on earth and was 
resumed on the streets of the New Jerusalem. 
Like the Patriarch of old, "He walked with God 
and was not, for God took him." 
Under the stress of this sudden loss I hardly 

192 



THOMAS OAKES CONANT 193 

know how to speak of one with whom I had been 
so closely associated for so many years, or how 
to gather up what is most significant out of the 
flood of memories and experiences that now come 
rushing into my mind. My acquaintance with Dr. 
Conant began in the late 70's, when he had super- 
vision of one of the departments of The Exam- 
iner, and my desk was in The Examiner office. 
When a few years later I became identified with 
The Christian Inquirer, our paths diverged, and 
when in 1894, at the solicitation of a representa- 
tive of The Examiner Company, The Examiner 
and The Inquirer united forces, we were brought 
into close personal relationship which continued 
in unbroken harmony and fraternity for eighteen 
years. 

Thomas 0. Conant was the third son of Eev. 
Dr. Thomas J. Conant, the great Hebraist and 
Bible translator and interpreter. He was born 
in Hamilton, N. Y., October 15, 1838, and was 
one of a family of ten children, comprising four 
sons and six daughters. His mother was Hannah 
O'Brien Chaplin, daughter of Dr. Jeremiah Chap- 
Jin, President of Waterville, now Colby College. 
She possessed rare literary ability, and was the 
author of several popular books. She also edited 
for some years the Mothers' Magazine. All the 
children inherited in some degree the scholarly 
taste of their parents. His brother next older, 
Samuel Stillman Conant, was editor of Harper's 
Weekly at the time of his mysterious disappear- 



194 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

ance in 1884. This was a living sorrow to the 
entire family, but especially to Thomas, who had 
for this brother special admiration and attach- 
ment. Although a literary atmosphere pervaded 
the home and his father was for many years 
professor at Hamilton and afterwards at Roches- 
ter, Thomas never availed himself of the ad- 
vantage of higher scholastic training, mainly be- 
cause his health would not permit of the confine- 
ment and application required. He studied for 
a time at Millbury Academy in Massachusetts, the 
Collegiate Institute in Rochester, New York, and 
the Polytechnic Institute, Borough of Brooklyn, 
New York. He loved books and read widely and 
understandingly. He was more familiar with the 
classics and with secular and sacred history than 
many who had been through college. In the last 
busy years he took up the study of Spanish and 
made such attainments that he found much enjoy- 
ment in the new world that had been opened to 
him. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred 
upon him by Mercer University, Macon, Georgia. 
When he had attained his twenty-fourth year 
he was joined in marriage to Martha Wilson, of 
Rochester, N. Y., on January 29, 1862. After a 
happy married life of forty-five years she entered 
into rest at their home in New York, on December 
28, 1907. Three children were born to them; one 
son and two daughters. The year previous to his 
marriage, in 1861, Dr. Conant was appointed to 
a responsible clerical position in the United 



THOMAS OAKES CONANT 195 

States Assay office, New York, which he held until 
1893, the long term of thirty-two years. From 
1872 to 1893 he was a regular contributor to The 
Examiner, virtually having supervision of the 
Agricultural Department of the paper. In 1893 
he resigned his position in the Assay Office to be- 
come assistant editor of The Examiner, which 
position he held for one year, when after the 
death of Dr. Bright and the acceptance by Dr. 
Henry C. Vedder of the chair of Church History 
in Crozer Theological Seminary, Chester, Pa., he 
became editor-in-chief. The union of the Exam- 
iner and The Inquirer, effected in 1895, brought 
me in close association with him as co-editor, un- 
til my resignation in 1910, to make an extended 
trip abroad, still retaining my interest In the 
paper. Two years later when Dr. Curtis Lee 
Laws purchased The Examiner, Dr. Conant was 
retained as consulting editor, which position he 
held until his sudden translation. 

Mrs. Thomas J. Conant, the mother of Dr. 
Conant, died in October, 1865, and eight years 
later, in October, 1873, his father married Esther 
Church, of the Borough of Brooklyn, New York, 
an intimate friend of the first Mrs. Conant and 
closely related to Dr. J. H. Raymond, head of the 
Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute 
and later of Vassar College. She was, however, 
no relation to Dr. Pharcellus Church of The New 
York Chronicle. Dr. Church was related to the 
Conants through his wife, who was Clara Emily 



196 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

Conant, sister of Thomas J. Conant, children of 
John Conant, of Vermont. Dr. Church, the editor 
of The Chronicle, therefore, was uncle to Thomas 
0. Conant, and Colonel W. C. Church, editor of 
the Army and Navy Journal, a son of Dr. Phar- 
cellus Church, was Thomas's cousin. Some seven- 
teen of the Conant-Church relations held positions 
as editors of or contributors to religious or sec- 
ular publications. By association and kinship as 
well as training, therefore, Dr. Conant was sin- 
gularly qualified for his work as a journalist. 

During all the long period of Dr. Conant 's con- 
nection with The Examiner the amount of work 
and energy he gave to the paper was without 
precedent. In the discharge of his exacting and 
ever recurring duties he seemed absolutely tire- 
less and was apparently as oblivious to physical 
strain as he was indifferent to recreation or social 
enjoyment. His powers of endurance were 
phenomenal, and few men could equal him in the 
number of hours he could work, and the amount 
of copy he could turn off. He had a very facile 
pen. "This one thing I do," was his ruling pas- 
sion, and it was so dominant that he never turned 
aside or hesitated when other calls came, however 
urgently presented. 

The demands of a paper like The Examiner 
would seem to be sufficient to tax all the energies 
a man possessed, but besides his manifold duties 
as editor and manager, he wrote extensively for 



THOMAS OAKES CONANT 197 

other publications. He was for two years the 
New York correspondent of the Chicago Inter- 
Ocean, He served on the Board of Education of 
Elizabeth, N. J., for two years, and as member 
of the Board of Directors of the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Tract Society for many years. He 
was president of the Baptist Social Union during 
1900-1901. When he moved into the city from 
Elizabeth he united with the Fifth Avenue Bap- 
tist church, faithfully filling the office of deacon 
for several years. 

Dr. Conant was a self-made man, and early 
learned to depend upon himself. In fact, so thor- 
oughly had this habit of self-dependence become 
a part of his nature that he would rather per- 
form a task himself than to put any burden upon 
another. He was versatile to a notable degree. 
He possessed a vast fund of information, due to 
his careful training in a refined and scholarly 
atmosphere, to his studious habits, and to his in- 
herited taste for the best in art, music and litera- 
ture. He shrank from public responsibility, and 
preferred above all else the companionship of his 
books and the quiet of his home and family life. 
He had the poetic temperament in a large degree, 
and poems on a variety of subjects are to be found 
in the pages of The Examiner and in other 
periodicals. In congenial circles he was given to 
story-telling and to repartee, showing a keen wit 
and a fine sense of humor. 



198 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

In theology and religion he was a representa- 
tive of the "old school." His creed was, "Ask 
for the old paths, " and " Walk therein. ' ' He held 
tenaciously not only to the old doctrines, but to 
the old forms of expression, and The Examiner 
was known as the bulwark of Baptist faith and 
practice. His deep convictions always commanded 
the respect of those who differed with him. 

Dr. Conant bore a striking resemblance to his 
father, Dr. Thomas J. Conant, for whom he cher- 
ished the tenderest affection and regard. He 
loved to speak of him, and followed closely his 
rendering of Scripture, and was largely guided 
by what he believed would be his father's attitude 
toward any question or line of action. A dutiful 
son, he was also a devoted husband and father. 
He never spoke of his wife, his son and daughters 
without a smile lighting up his face and a gentler 
tone showing in his voice. Nothing concerned him 
more deeply than their happiness and prosperity. 

Dr. Conant was devoted to his church. He was 
loyal to his pastor, faithful in his church attend- 
ance and in the discharge of his covenant obliga- 
tions and duties. Probably his most outstanding 
characteristic was his Christian integrity. His 
faith in God and in his wise supervision in all the 
larger affairs of life, as well as in the bestowment 
of daily mercies, was implicit. He had no doubts 
as to the realities of the future world or the hap- 
piness of the saints in light. 



THOMAS OAKES CONANT 199 

To his bereaved family and friends he speaks 
in these assuring words in his Easter song of six 
years ago: 

"Nay cease thy faithless weeping! v 
They are not dead but sleeping 
Who die in Jesus: They 
But wait in bliss supernal 
Till dawns that morn eternal, 
The last glad Easter Day." 



XI 
HENEY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 

THE circumstances under which men are 
accidentally brought together often deter- 
mine the nature and character of their 
subsequent relationship, resulting frequently in a 
firm and lasting friendship. My acquaintance 
with Dr. Morehouse began under happy condi- 
tions. I had heard him preach in the East Avenue 
church, Eochester, N. Y., of which he was pastor. 
I had often seen him walking in company with 
President A. H. Strong in friendly converse on 
the avenue. I had even met him at one of the 
University of Eochester alumni gatherings. He 
was a young, vigorous preacher and made a 
strong appeal to the students. Among the college 
men active in his church and Sunday school was 
A. Gaylord Slocum, of the class of 74, who had 
become engaged to my eldest sister. Whenever 
she visited Eochester she attended the East 
Avenue church. When finally, July 14, 1875, was 
settled upon as the wedding day, Dr. Morehouse 
was invited to perform the ceremony. He came 
to our house in Cortland, N. Y., on the morning 

200 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 201 

train, and the duty of entertaining him until the 
hour of the ceremony in the late afternoon was 
intrusted to me. We drove along the maple-lined 
highways, traversing the beautiful valleys. We 
strolled through the business and residential 
streets. We stretched ourselves on the lawn 
under the overarching trees while we discussed 
college life, churches, the ministry, denomina- 
tional affairs and incidents of personal interest 
and experience. It proved to be a notable day, 
for in addition to gaining a brother I had made 
a valued and life-long friend. 

Henry Lyman Morehouse came of sturdy Scotch 
and English stock. He was a descendant of 
Thomas Morehouse, who moved into Connecticut 
about 1640. His father, Seth Seelye Morehouse, 
was married to Emma Bentley and settled on a 
farm in Fairfield, a small agricultural community 
now known as Stratfield, located about five miles 
north of Bridgeport Center. Later the family 
moved to Stanford, Dutchess County, N. Y., where 
Henry was born, on October 2, 1834. He was the 
eldest of two sons, the only children born of this 
union, the other son named Ezra, being about two 
years younger. The parents as well as the grand- 
parents were thrifty farmers. 

When the boy Henry was about eleven years 
of age the family moved to Avon, N. Y., settling 
upon a rich productive farm in the Genesee Val- 
ley, about twenty miles southwest of Rochester. 
About a year later, when only twelve, Henry had 



202 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

so great curiosity to see the locality where his 
ancestors had settled and the farm on which his 
father and mother had begun housekeeping, that 
he made the journey to Stratfield to familiarize 
himself with the family traditions. He found the 
old homestead situated in a deep, fertile valley, 
in fact more of a basin than a valley, shielded on 
all sides by encircling hills. The old original 
house, as he found it, is still standing. There is 
now only one other house in the valley. On the 
Morehouse farm was a fine, large spring of cool, 
delicious water. Some fifteen years ago the 
waters of this spring became quite celebrated as 
the Mohegan Spring Waters. The company, how- 
ever, that financed the putting of the waters on 
the market failed, so no one got "rich" out of the 
venture. 

In his boyhood Henry showed marked ability 
and force of character. Although his help was 
needed on the farm his parents at considerable 
sacrifice encouraged him in his desire to gain an 
education. It was the old story of the value of 
spare moments, pine-knots, late hours and stead- 
fast purpose. He prepared for college at the 
Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, a Methodist school 
located at Lima, about five miles from his home. 
As a boy he was a "live wire," full of pranks and 
jokes that made him the admiration of his com- 
rades and kept his teachers guessing. He spent 
his "week ends" and summers at home, as he did 
his college vacations, doing a man's work on the 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 203 

farm. He entered the University of Rochester at 
the age of nineteen, graduating with the class of 
'58, probably the most notable class that ever 
went out from the University. In college he was 
a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and was 
class poet. He became a Phi Beta Kappa man, 
was chosen Alumni poet, served as president of 
the Alumni Association, received from his Alma 
Mater the degree of D.D. in 1879 and LL.D., in 
1908. 

Because of the death of his father in 1859, at 
the age of fifty-two years, now regarded as a 
man's prime, Henry was unexpectedly obliged, 
with the assistance of his younger brother, Ezra, 
to take the oversight of the farm in order to 
provide for his widowed mother. While in col- 
lege his thought had been seriously turned to the 
matter of personal religion. Having yielded his 
heart to Christ, near the close of his junior year 
he united with the Baptist Church at Avon, into 
the fellowship of which his father and mother had 
been baptized in 1850, only some seven years be- 
fore. Their sympathies and affiliations had prob- 
ably always been with Baptists, as the grand- 
father was a member of the Baptist Church at 
Bangall, five miles from his home in Dutchess 
County. 

In addition to the heavy responsibilities en- 
forced upon him by the death of his father, Henry 
was never free from anxiety and uncertainty as 
to his future. How was he best to utilize the 



204 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

education obtained at so great a cost? His deci- 
sion to give himself to the Christian ministry was 
made in the field one day early in 1861. He had 
cherished for some time the desire to enter the 
army and had obtained a commission from the 
Governor of the State to raise a company. Alumni 
and undergraduates of the university had re- 
sponded to the country's call. He was eager to 
join them, but was restrained by the unwillingness 
of his aging mother to have him leave her. 

The story of how he was led to decide for the 
ministry reads like that of one of the Fathers. 
One bright day as he was plowing in the field he 
looked up into the deep blue of the sky above him 
and around upon the beauty of the trees and the 
fields on every hand, and then in his quiet but 
serious meditation he said to himself: in a world 
so divinely ordered he believed he was capable of 
doing something of wider service to humanity 
than farming. Turning aside from his plow in 
the furrow he went to a nearby tree where he 
sat down in the shade to reflect and to pray. 
When he got up the decision had been made. He 
would be a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. By 
divine grace he had righted the angle of his life 
about from all worldly pursuits towards God and 
toward Christian service. 

After an interval of three years of laborious 
and never-ending work on the farm he entered 
the Eochester Theological Seminary. In college 
he had been brought under the masterful per- 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 205 

sonality, the stimulating intellectuality, moral and 
religious, of President M. B. Anderson, now lie 
came under the clear, incisive but no less power- 
fully quickening and uplifting influence of Presi- 
dent Ezekiel G. Robinson. While a seminary 
student he supplied the church at Niagara Falls 
where he rendered effective evangelistic service, 
and where he is still remembered with apprecia- 
tion and affection. Immediately after his gradua- 
tion he entered upon the work of the Christian 
Commission for Christian Workers in the Army 
of the Potomac, serving during the summer in 
connection with the battles of the Wilderness, 
Chickahominy and about Petersburg in Virginia. 
In the fall of 1864, after a summer of unre- 
mitting and exacting toil, he accepted the call ex- 
tended to him by the First Baptist church at East 
Saginaw, Michigan, where he labored with in- 
creasing ability and effectiveness until January, 
1873 — a period of nine years. When Dr. More- 
house went to East Saginaw the place was liter- 
ally a home mission field. It was a pioneer town 
in the strictest meaning of the word. It consisted 
of a collection of rambling frame houses with here 
and there a brick structure. It had sprung up 
as by magic in the midst of a wilderness, because 
of the salt and lumber interests, and had attracted 
to itself rough elements from everywhere. Sun- 
days were like other days, with saloons wide open. 
Stumps stood in the streets, which were often so 
flooded that walking was impossible, the pools 



206 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

forming excellent breeding places for mosquitoes, 
with which the place abounded. There were no 
pavements and no flagstones. Planks laid end to 
end formed the only kind of sidewalk. 

The church itself was a small and primitive 
affair. It had been depleted by divisions and 
dissensions until it only numbered twenty-five 
members, who worshiped in a hall, as they had 
no property. As the rear of the hall extended 
over a bayou, in the summertime the frogs often 
made music to the amusement of the young people 
and the annoyance of the older folk. But the hard 
field and the helplessness of the church attracted 
the young preacher. He went upon the field as 
a missionary of the Home Mission Society and 
labored for three years on a salary of $600. For 
the first two years he gave back to the church 
all of his salary but what he needed for board 
and clothing. At the end of that period the salary 
was increased to $800. He did not confine his 
labors to his own church, but went into the regions 
to the north, east and west establishing preaching 
stations, Sunday schools and bringing men under 
the influence of the gospel. The work was very 
strenuous, but "he enjoyed it," for he was laying 
foundations for substantial work to come. In the 
short space of five years his little church had 
greatly multiplied in numbers and had acquired a 
property valued at $25,000 in the heart of the 
city. The purchase of a bell completed the building 
enterprise. 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 207 

The dedication of the new edifice was followed 
by a revival and a large ingathering. The in- 
fluence of the pastor and church now became a 
stimulating evangelistic force in a widely extend- 
ing region. For three or four years Dr. More- 
house preached every alternate Sunday at South 
Saginaw, where a church was organized. He also 
preached occasionally in what was known as the 
Brooks's district. One of the many experiences 
of those days of which, when in a reminiscent 
mood, he enjoyed speaking, was an ordination at 
a town about fifty miles to the northeast of Sag- 
inaw, to which he rode in a wagon. At night he 
had to sleep in a haymow, because there was no 
room in the houses of the settlers. The young 
pastor became known throughout the State as an 
able and aggressive leader and was called to the 
front in many departments of endeavor. He be- 
came actively identified with all Michigan State 
denominational activities. He was elected a trus- 
tee of Kalamazoo College and was chosen presi- 
dent of the State Missionary Convention. He was 
also actively interested in the movement to found 
a Theological Seminary in Chicago. He ac- 
quainted himself thoroughly with all forms of 
pioneer-mission work, no problem presenting it- 
self that he did not endeavor to find for it a solu- 
tion. Little did he realize then of what in- 
estimable value these years of frontier service 
were to be to him. 

From East Saginaw he was called in January, 



208 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

1873, to the pastorate of the East Avenue church, 
Rochester, afterwards known as the Park Avenue 
church, now consolidated with the Second church, 
in its new location on East Avenue. The East 
Avenue church at the time Dr. Morehouse as- 
sumed the pastoral oversight had only been or- 
ganized two years and had, like the East Saginaw 
church, all its history in the future. The house 
of worship was a plain wooden structure neither 
architecturally attractive nor adequately supplied 
with needed equipment. He soon became recog- 
nized in the city as a man of force and leader- 
ship and was accorded rank with those of wide 
reputation and influence. He gave himself unre- 
servedly to the up-building of his church, attract- 
ing to it among others many of the students and 
professors of the college and seminary. He was 
elected a member of the board of trustees of the 
Theological Seminary, and for three of his six 
years in Rochester he served the board as corre- 
sponding secretary. His relations, as well as 
those of his church, to the Seminary during his 
pastorate were of a delightfully friendly and 
fraternal character. 

Probably no one was more surprised than him- 
self when, in May, 1879, he was chosen Corre- 
sponding Secretary of the Home Mission Society, 
the great national society under whose auspices 
he had labored as missionary in Michigan. He 
decided after much consideration to accept the 
secretaryship and entered upon his new duties 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 209 

the following July, as the successor of Dr. 
S. S. Cutting. He had scarcely settled in his new 
office and adjusted himself to his new relations 
by September, so it was not strange that his 
presence in the city did not occur to me, when I 
came in the fall as a student to Union Seminary. 
But shortly afterwards I looked him up, and the 
friendship began at Cortland was renewed to con- 
tinue to the end. 

It was as corresponding secretary of the Home 
Mission Society that he did his great life-work, 
covering a period of thirty-eight years. With 
great tactfulness and wisdom he re-organized, 
vitalized and broadened the work of the society. 
Almost immediately the denomination felt the in- 
spiration and devotion of the new leader, and the 
response of churches and individuals was prompt 
and generous. He organized the Church Edifice 
Gift-Fund and "More-house" was the slogan by 
which funds were secured for church buildings 
throughout the great west. He was in constant 
demand for sermons and public addresses. He 
was fruitful in plans and suggestions. He at- 
tended State Conventions, he linked up local and 
State societies to the Home Mission Society, he 
arranged conferences, he made friends of finan- 
cial and industrial leaders. As he went forth on 
his trips across the country and through the far 
west he was likened in the enthusiasm and interest 
he awakened to James G. Blaine and was fittingly 



210 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

dubbed the " Plumed Knight" of the Baptist de- 
nomination. 

But the wind and tide were not always favor- 
able. The panic of 1884 brought him many 
anxious, wakeful hours, because of business de- 
pression and of the heavy losses that had come 
to many of the most generous supporters of the 
Society. With the return of good times and the 
enlistment of many new friends the Society en- 
tered upon another era of wide expansion and 
growth. Again by over-persuasion he extended 
substantial aid to a friend and associate who 
failed to appreciate the kindness shown him and 
he passed through another Gethsemane. Like his 
Master he drank to the bitter dregs the cup of 
injustice and ingratitude. Though exonerated by 
the board he felt so keenly any criticism that 
might come to the Society through any act of his 
that he resigned the secretaryship in 1892, against 
the wishes of his brethren, but consented to con- 
tinue in office for a year until his successor was 
chosen. When Dr. Thomas J. Morgan had com- 
pleted his term as Indian Commissioner he was 
elected Corresponding Secretary and Dr. More- 
house was pressed by the board into the office of 
field secretary, as the work had grown to such 
large proportions as to make two secretaries 
necessary. In the new relation his duties took 
him out among the churches most of the time. He 
traveled from the lakes to the gulf and from 
ocean to ocean and was often perplexed and 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 211 

dispirited by the needs of the field and the in- 
ability of the society to meet them. His poem 
"Let about," based on Exodus 13:18, "God led 
the people about," written .probably under great 
mental and physical exhaustion after a long and 
wearisome journey, shows how great was his 
tumult of soul and depression of spirit as he 
viewed the problems of his work or the trials and 
defeats he had to face. 



"LED ABOUT" 

Here I wander, while I wonder 

What the Lord 's ways mean for me ; — 

Forward, backward, thither, hither, 
Misty maze of mystery! 

Bound and round upon my circuit, 

Painful progress, if at all; 
Travel-wearied, weather-beaten, — 

Lord, my strength, my faith is small. 

Marching now to martial music, 

Mourning over sore defeat, 
Numb, but "dumb because thou didst it," 

Fall I, fainting at thy feet. 

Upward to the heights elysian, 

Down to depths all dark and drear, 

Vivid contrasts vex my vision, 
Pain, perplex, and fill with fear. 

Thus of old "thy flock thou leddest;" 
Murmured they, as murmur we; — 

Hush, my heart! The shepherds' secret 
May be half revealed to thee. 



212 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

"Led about," — through storm and sunshine, 
Elim's palms and scorching sand, — 

Thus He chastens, cleanses, fits us, 
Bring us to the Promised Land. 

On the death of Dr. Morgan in 1902, Dr. More- 
house was recalled to the office of corresponding 
secretary, and Dr. E. E. Chivers, of Buffalo, was 
elected as his successor as field secretary. The 
remarkable growth of the society from the day 
Dr. Morehouse became secretary in 1879 to his 
death in 1917 may be seen in the fact that the 
receipts had increased from $122,419.21 in 1878 
to $987,611.46 in 1917 and the number of mission- 
aries from 277 to 1,274. 

In addition to the vast work of supervision and 
re-adjustment to meet new conditions his extended 
correspondence and his duties as editor of the 
Home Mission Monthly, Dr. Morehouse found 
time in 1882-3 to write the history of the Home 
Mission Society in commemoration of the So- 
ciety's Jubilee Meeting in New York. He also 
contributed frequently papers and articles to our 
denominational weeklies. He indulged occasion- 
ally his poetic taste and many of his poems found 
their way into the public press. In the interest 
of the Society he traveled extensively in the 
United States, in Mexico, Cuba, Porto Eico, 
Hawaii and Alaska. By what he saw and heard 
"across the border" his sympathies were greatly 
stirred in behalf of the people of Mexico. Their 
pitably neglected condition, their ignorance, their 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 213 

utter subjection to the Romish Church seemed to 
haunt him and to harass his spirit. His little 
poem " Prayer, Means, and Men for Mexico,' ' 
voices the depth of his feeling for this benighted 
people. 



PRAYERS, MEANS AND MEN FOR MEXICO 

For kindred, Country, Church, we pray, 
For distant lands in sin and woe — 

Prayers rise like incense. Yet, to-day, 
"Where are the prayers for Mexico? 

For fields at home, for fields abroad, 
The streams of Christian giving flow — 

Most blessed streams ! But, Lord God, 
Where are the means for Mexico % 

From papal night, turned toward the light, 
Souls, disenthralled, the truth would know; 

The hour has come! "The fields are white!" 
Where are the men for Mexico? 

Here is our neighbor. Pass not by, 

Like priest and Levite long ago ; 
Have pity ! Help ! Ring out the cry ; 

Prayers, means and men for Mexico ! 

Dr. Morehouse did not confine his travels to 
his own country. He made two visits to Europe. 
On his second trip he represented the society in 
an address before the Baptist World Congress 
and served on the committee that drafted the con- 
stitution. In the summer of 1900 Mrs. Calvert 
and I found him indulging in a brief rest at the 



214 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

Thousand Islands and enjoyed exceedingly a 
day's excursion in his genial company. 

No summary of his work as Corresponding 
Secretary of the Home Mission Society would be 
complete without reference to the great influence 
he exerted in organizing and promoting other 
undertakings along kindred lines of endeavor. 
The subject of education always lay near to his 
heart and the Freedman schools in the South, the 
maintenance of which was a large part of the 
work of the Society, had in him a warm advocate 
and steadfast supporter. He had no greater de- 
light than providing new buildings, better equip- 
ment and needed funds for an increased endow- 
ment. But he was not content that the cause of 
education should be a department merely of the 
Society and confined to one section of the country. 
He would establish a National Baptist Education 
Society to found new educational institutions and 
to promote the welfare of our academies and col- 
leges already established. In the carrying out of 
his ideals he had the co-operation and support of 
other leaders but he was really the father of the 
organization that discovered Dr. Harper and that 
called into being the University of Chicago, one 
of the marvels of the educational world. 

As the representative of the Baptists of the 
North he had deplored the division caused by the 
civil war and had sought to bring about by ex- 
change of delegates and by cooperation in mis- 
sionary and educational work a spirit of unity and 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 215 

fraternity between the Baptists of the North and 
South. Quietly but persistently he advocated a 
larger brotherhood of feeling and fellowship on 
the part of all our churches. Twelve years ago 
the movement in this direction crystallized into 
the General Convention of the Baptists of North 
America. 

His last great achievement, and one which had 
its seeds in his own early self-sacrificing, self- 
denying experiences, was the organization in 1911 
of the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board. 
He was too familiar with the privations and hard- 
ships of pastors in rural districts and on the 
frontier to rest content until some provision had 
been made for their needs in their declining years. 
He lived to see the youngest of our beneficent 
agencies expand until the invested funds amounted 
to $900,000 sufficient to extend aid to 425 minis- 
ters, missionaries and widows. The proposals to 
add $1,000,000 to the fund as a memorial tribute 
to the founder would only be such an expression 
of gratitude as the denomination should be glad 
to make and would perpetuate his influence where 
he would be most desirous to have it felt for un- 
told years to come. 

In appearance and manner Dr. Morehouse was 
military in his bearing. He had the air of one 
born to command. Self -poised, dignified, resolute, 
reserved yet he was always affable and approach- 
able. His fine head, with open frank countenance 
was set firmly upon his broad shoulders. Above 



216 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

medium height, well proportioned, he stood erect 
to the end. He was almost never ill and never 
had to seek rest from overwork. His strong 
sinewy body, made more si ong by hard work on 
the farm, was a priceless ht itage. He never suf- 
fered from indiscretion in eating or from want 
of habits of regular exercise. He often said, "my 
stomach will take care of everything put into it. ' ' 
In such a body one would look for a great soul, 
a courageous heart and a sound, well-balanced 
fruitful mind. He was master of others because 
he was master of himself. He was never im- 
patient, never gave way to passion, never spoke 
a harsh or unkind word, and never appeared 
ruffled or heated in conference or debate. He was, 
however, given to introspection, to caprice, to 
severe censoring of himself, yet he maintained so 
universally the same even temper and genial atti- 
tude that those nearest to him could not guess 
what was going on under that calm exterior. He 
never indulged in gossip and when tales were told 
him about his brethren he would look intently into 
the face of the speaker while he asked inquiringly 
in subdued tone, "Is that so?" Loyal, unassum- 
ing, ever helpful and companionable^ with him 
once a friend always a friend. 

Equal to any occasion, Dr. Morehouse was at 
his best in large assemblages or at our great de- 
nominational gatherings. Among the leaders he 
was a commanding figure. His gifts of leader- 
ship, of ability to marshal facts as well as his 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 217 

knowledge of denominational affairs, his states- 
manship, his broad vision, his dry wit and his 
ready speech all had here opportunity for mani- 
festation as he sought to clarify discussion, to 
re-state the matter at issue, or to set forth some 
constructive plans for larger unity or far-reach- 
ing endeavor. 

His outstanding characteristic probably was his 
capacity for work. His motto " Whatever ought 
to be done, can be done," was suggestive of the 
faith of a Carey or a Judson. He could ' l toil ter- 
ribly." He was " zealous in every good word and 
work." He was as regular at his office as clock- 
work, often being the last to leave and rarely 
availing himself of the Saturday half-holiday. 
He was besieged with appeals of all kinds — from 
churches for pastors, from pastors for churches, 
for advice in church difficulties, for introductions 
to liberal givers, for assistance in raising debts 
or endowments and for financial aid for destitute 
ministers, widows and orphans. Instead of his 
office being a " private sanctum" it was more like 
an attorney's counsel room. Pastors, laymen, 
delegations, committees, rich and poor, friends 
and strangers felt free to break in upon him and 
always found him ready to listen to their story 
and to help as far as it was in his power to do so. 
When it is remembered that there were monthly 
board meetings, frequent directors ', trustees' and 
committee meetings, besides the enormous de- 
mands of the society itself, some conception can 



218 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

be had of the vast amount of work that had to be 
turned out by him every twenty-four hours. 

Dr. Morehouse was a Baptist from conviction. 
He held as tenaciously to Baptist tenets in his last 
years as he did when he took upon himself the 
covenant obligations in the little church at Avon. 
He had little patience with those who advocated 
an "open-church membership' ' or were disposed 
to be more liberal than those of other faiths. He 
believed in Baptist principles, Baptist polity, 
Baptist institutions and in Baptist progress and 
his highest ambition was to found Baptist 
churches in every part of this broad country and 
to fortify and promote those already established, 
with the hope that their influence would leaven the 
whole world. While such a stalwart Baptist he 
was removed as far as possible from being 
illiberal, bigoted or narrow minded. He was 
broad in his sympathies, charitable and most un- 
selfish. 

Dr. Morehouse never married. When he was 
of the age when "a young man's fancy lightly 
turns to thoughts of love" he felt the great ob- 
ligation devolving upon him to provide for his 
widowed mother and when he entered upon his 
life-work he became wedded to that. At first only 
by the strictest economy could he provide a home 
for his mother and himself on his meager salary. 
WTien he entered upon his duties as Correspond- 
ing Secretary he brought his mother to Brooklyn 
where he maintained a home until her death in 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 219 

1892 at the age of seventy-seven. The rumor that 
found wings in Rochester that the young lady to 
whom he had become engaged, died before circum- 
stances would permit of their marriage, persisted 
after he came to New York, but his own state- 
ment that there never was any foundation for 
such a report ought to put it forever at rest. 
After his mother's death the demands of his work 
were so numerous and urgent that he never could 
give any thought to what might promote his com- 
fort or pleasure. With Paul he believed that "he 
that is unmarried careth for the things that be- 
long to the Lord, how he may please the Lord." 
He threw himself unreservedly into the task of 
promoting the interests of the Home Mission 
Society, giving to it his whole mind and soul and 
strength. Most fortunate was the Home Mission 
Society to command a man of his talents who was 
foot-loose and free to travel, to go and come, with 
no home ties and no home demands. He was not, 
however, without kindred and friends upon whom 
he centered his interests and affection. He al- 
ways cherished a tender, fraternal feeling for his 
only brother, who made his home in Council 
Bluffs, Iowa, in 1890, but who returned East in 
1912 and has since resided in Cresskill, N. J. His 
love for his brother's four children, two nephews 
and two nieces, could not have been greater if they 
had been his own. He watched over them in child- 
hood, assisted in their education and had joy in 
their advancement and settlement in life. 



220 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

When "by reason of strength" Dr. Morehonse 
had attained his fonr score years he wrote a 
vesper song, to which he gave the modest title "A 
song at eighty." He read it to me in manuscript 
and when he had had it printed in attractive form 
for distribution among a few friends he gave me 
a copy. It breathes so much of his cheerful 
courageous spirit and is such a beautiful epitome 
of his life told in his own characteristically 
modest, simple style that his friends will always 
cherish it as one of the choicest little poems that 
ever came from his pen. 



A SONG AT EIGHTY 

At fourscore years my soul breaks forth in singing: 

The vesper bell 
Of life's long day in mellowed tones is ringing: 

"All's well; all's well." 

This length of life with strength for tasks appointed, 

And still a place 
In fellowship and work with God's anointed, 

Are all of grace. 

In early life goes forth a sower, weeping : 

He waits, believes; 
In later life he comes rejoicing; reaping; 

With golden sheaves. 

With powers preserved, I covet not inaction, 

To rest and rust; 
The spirit finds a higher satisfaction 

In toil and trust. 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 221 

As duty calls, through clear and strong conviction, 

My race I run: 
Enough, at last, the Master's benediction: 

" Well done. Well done." 



Though shadows deepen, with the sun declining, 

And clouds arise; 
A heavenly glory often marks the shining 

Of evening skies. 

My cup is filled with goodness, mercy, sweetness, 

Full to the brim : 
The past, with all its sins and incompleteness, 

I leave with Him. 



To fellow workers rapidly completing 

Their long careers, 
A veteran sends his Christian love and greeting 

At fourscore years. 

Sublime our task! With joyful consecration 

Our best we bring: 
Supreme event! Creation's coronation 

Of Christ as King! 



In a long, active, serviceable life, like that of 
Dr. Morehouse's crowned at the close with sudden 
glory, faith finds satisfying fruition. As pastor 
and corresponding secretary he "labored more 
abundantly than they all," for more than half a 
century and as the evening of life drew on, like 
the prophet of old "he was caught up as by a 
whirlwind into heaven," without any warning or 
any painful and wasting illness. In order to avoid 



222 MEN WHO HAVE MEANT MUCH TO ME 

the return of a grippe attack, in an aggravated 
form, with attendant nervous depression, from 
which he rallied with difficulty the previous win- 
ter, he went to Florida in January, where he spent 
a pleasant, re-invigorating season, building up his 
general health and greeting friends congregated 
there from the North. He returned to New York 
on Thursday, May 3, 1917, apparently much re- 
juvenated and greatly cheered in spirit, eager to 
enter into the final preparations for the Cleveland 
anniversaries. As was his custom, after an 
absence, on Friday he made the rounds of the 
Home Mission Rooms, greeting each of his as- 
sociates with a cheering word and then called at 
the offices of the other societies and of the Watch- 
man-Examiner with a friendly salutation for all 
and the assurance of pleasure at being back. The 
one word expressive of his deepest feeling was: 
"I am tired of loafing, I had rather be on the 
job." On Saturday afternoon in the quiet of his 
own room at home, without warning, without any 
signs of suffering he sank quietly to the floor and 
expired. His work was done. He had finished 
his course and had entered into his reward. "What 
more beautiful and fitting ending to a well- 
rounded, richly ripened life than to pass at once 
from the turmoil and uncertainty of life here into 
the world of peace and of eternal realities ! There 
was no wasting away from fever and racking pain, 
no long and weary weeks of watching, no im- 
patient longing for the end to come. He went 



HENRY LYMAN MOREHOUSE 223 

away as one who passes from his living room into 
his sleeping room: 

" Think of 

Stepping on shore and finding it heaven, 

Of taking hold of a hand and finding it God's hand. 

Of breathing a new air and finding it celestial air, 

Of being invigorated and finding it immortality. 

Of passing from storm and tempest to an unknown calm, 

Of waking up and finding it Home.' , 



Printed in the United States of America 



